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During a trip to the Middle East marking the end of Israel’s war on Gaza, United States President Donald Trump turned to another source of strife in the region: the tensions between Tehran and Washington.

In remarks to the Israeli Knesset on Monday, Trump, who took the unprecedented step of bombing Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this year amid a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, offered a “hand of friendship”.

“We are ready when you are, and it will be the best decision that Iran has ever made, and it’s going to happen,” Trump said of a possible agreement with Tehran.

“The hand of friendship and cooperation is open. I’m telling you, they [Iran] want to make a deal. It would be great if we could make a deal.”

But despite the dovish rhetoric, the Trump administration has continued to take a hard line against Iran, and analysts say that a path towards better relations between the two countries remains filled with obstacles.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a US-based think tank, said that the Israeli and US attacks in June, which came as nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran were ongoing, undermined advocacy for diplomacy in Iran.

“There’s a perception that the US is using diplomacy to lull Iran into a false sense of security,” Parsi said.

‘Iran is open to a deal’

Iran itself has not closed the door to diplomacy, but its leaders have not rushed to renew talks with the US, either.

“If we receive a reasonable, balanced, and fair proposal from the Americans for negotiations, we will certainly consider it,” Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said during a television interview on Saturday.

Iran had rejected an Egyptian invitation to attend a summit on the war in Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, citing US attacks and sanctions.

Talks over Iran’s nuclear programme have not resumed since the Trump administration’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel started the war in June, days before the US and Iranian officials were set for another round of talks.

The US, which during Trump’s first term in 2018 withdrew from a previous deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme, has also insisted that any new agreement include a total ban on Iranian uranium enrichment.

That demand goes beyond the original deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which only curbed Iran’s uranium enrichment programme under a strict international inspection system.

Iran has depicted that new demand as a denial of its rights as a sovereign country, noting that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) does not prohibit uranium enrichment.

The impasse over enrichment has become a sticking point in negotiations.

“Iran is open to a deal,” Parsi told Al Jazeera. “But regardless of Trump’s positive tone and kind words, what he is looking for is for Iran to capitulate. As long as he insists on zero enrichment, I don’t think he will get a deal.”

Israel’s war with Iran, which included Israel’s assassination of high-level military figures and civilian nuclear scientists, as well as air strikes that killed hundreds of people, has also increased scepticism about the prospects of a lasting deal with the US.

In a speech to the Knesset on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the US decision to bomb Iran during the war as a “biblical miracle”.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Israel has struck a series of blows against Iran and allied groups, such as Hezbollah, across the Middle East, leaving it significantly weakened and giving the US little incentive to make concessions on uranium enrichment and other issues.

Trump often reiterates that Iran’s nuclear programme has been “obliterated” by the US strikes on key facilities, but the extent of the damage remains unclear.

The Pentagon said earlier this year that the Iranian nuclear programme had been set back by one to two years. But Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said that Iran could be enriching uranium again within months.

Trump can ‘let Iran sweat’

Iran insists that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, while Israel is widely believed to possess an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Gregory Brew, an Iran analyst at the US-based Eurasia Group, argued that time is on Trump’s side in the confrontation with Iran.

“Trump can sound optimistic about diplomacy, but he can also afford to wait and let Iran sweat,” Brew told Al Jazeera via email.

“With its nuclear programme in ruins, and with new Israeli strikes likely if Iran takes steps to rebuild the programme, [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei and the rest of the leadership don’t have many good options.”

Iran is also facing renewed sanctions from the UN after France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered a so-called snapback of sanctions in August, arguing that Iran had violated the terms of the JCPOA.

Tehran countered that the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and called another deal allowing inspections of its nuclear facilities by the IAEA “no longer relevant” after the US and Israeli strikes.

Iran was incensed at the IAEA for failing to condemn strikes against its nuclear facilities, which Tehran argues are protected under international law.

“There’s no upside for Trump in resuming talks without Iranian concessions, and there’s currently little downside in letting pressure build, as Iran has been weakened to the point that its ability to threaten Israel or US interests in the region is fairly limited,” said Brew.

Despite the carnage in Gaza, United States President Donald Trump has received a hero’s welcome across the Middle East as he visited Israel and Egypt to celebrate the ceasefire deal.

Trump spoke at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Monday before heading to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, where he participated in a signing ceremony for the ceasefire agreement along with regional and international leaders.

Throughout the trip, Trump expressed joy and took personal credit for ending the Israeli war on Gaza, which killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in a campaign that leading rights advocates have described as a genocide.

The US president delivered several sets of remarks throughout the day, emphasising his support for Israel and asserting that the Gaza ceasefire marks the start of a peaceful era in the region.

Here are key takeaways from Trump’s remarks:

A new Middle East

It’s not uncommon for US presidents to envision and promote “a new Middle East” – one that is friendly to Washington and Israel, stable and ripe for trade and investments.

Trump on Monday became the latest US president to talk of a fundamental transformation in the region.

“This is the end of an age of terror and death and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God,” Trump said.

“It’s the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel and all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region. I believe that so strongly. This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.”

Throughout his remarks, Trump painted the agreement in Gaza as an all-encompassing solution to the issues in the region.

But Palestinian rights advocates have warned that there can be no lasting peace and stability if Israel continues its occupation and subjugation of Palestinians.

Israel has continued to launch attacks across Lebanon and Syria, while continuing to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

While countries across the world have welcomed ending two years of horrific atrocities in Gaza, it remains to be seen how the deal will affect broader conflicts in the region.

Calling for Netanyahu pardon

Trump sang the praises of Benjamin Netanyahu and tried to boost the Israeli prime minister, who is facing corruption charges domestically.

While Trump has previously called for dropping the legal cases against Netanyahu, on Monday, he called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog publicly to pardon the prime minister, downplaying the allegations against him, which include receiving lavish gifts as bribes.

“I have an idea: Mr president, why don’t you give him a pardon?” Trump said as the Israeli parliament erupted in cheers. “Cigars and champagne – who the hell cares about it?”

Trump called Netanyahu one of the greatest wartime leaders.

“He is not easy,” the US president said of the Israeli prime minister. “I want to tell you he’s not the easiest guy to deal with, but that’s what makes him great.”

Trump also recounted how Netanyahu would request specific weapons from him.

“We make the best weapons in the world, and we’ve got a lot of them, and we’ve given a lot to Israel, frankly,” the US president said.

“I mean, Bibi would call me so many times – ‘Can you get me this weapon, that weapon, that weapon?’ Some of them, I never heard of.”

Israel has used US weapons to turn most of Gaza into rubble and attack countries across the region. Washington has provided $21bn to its Middle East ally over the past two years.

Acknowledging international pressure

Despite lauding Netanyahu, Trump recognised that global opinion was turning against Israel due to the horrific atrocities in Gaza.

“The world is big and is strong, and ultimately the world wins,” Trump said.

Several of Israel’s Western allies recognised a Palestinian state in the past months, partly in response to the horrors Israel was unleashing on Gaza.

The US president said he congratulates Netanyahu for taking the “victory” instead of continuing the war indefinitely.

“If you would have gone on for three, four more years – keep fighting, fighting, fighting – it was getting bad. It was getting heated,” he said.

“The timing of this is brilliant. And I said, ‘Bibi, you’re going to be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going – kill, kill, kill.’”

Trump suggested that Israel’s issues are now over. “The world is loving Israel again,” he told the Knesset.

But rights advocates have vowed to continue to push for accountability for the genocide.

A passing message to Palestinians

In his comments throughout Monday, Trump took a proverbial victory lap. focusing on what he said would be a bright future for Israel and the broader region.

But he had a brief message to Palestinians in his Knesset speech.

The US president called on Palestinians in Gaza to focus on “stability, safety, dignity and economic development”.

There was no acknowledgement of Israeli atrocities or of the decades of displacement, dispossession and occupation that the International Court of Justice says amount to apartheid.

“The choice for Palestinians could not be more clear. This is their chance to turn forever from the path of terror and violence. It’s been extreme, to exile the wicked forces of hate that are in their midst,” Trump said.

He reasserted the claim that Palestinians’ grievances with Israel are driven by hate, rather than by the material conditions Israel has imposed on them.

“After tremendous pain and death and hardship, now is the time to concentrate on building their people up, instead of trying to tear Israel down,” Trump said of Palestinians.

At no point did he recognise Palestinians’ right to their own state.

Mixed signals to Iran

Trump once again reasserted that the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities obliterated the country’s nuclear programme.

He also gave Israel a pat on the back for killing Iran’s top military leaders and many of the country’s nuclear scientists.

Trump also suggested that if Israel and the US had not attacked Iran, the Gaza deal would not have come together.

He said that taking out the Iranian nuclear programme paves the way for more Arab states to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel.

“We don’t have a Gaza and we don’t have an Iran as an excuse. That was a good excuse, but we don’t have that anymore,” he said. “All the momentum now is toward a great, glorious and lasting peace.”

But despite painting Iran as defeated and weakened, Trump kept the door open for talks with Tehran.

“I think Iran will come along,” he said.

Israel attacked Iran in June, days before Iranian and US negotiators were set to meet for a round of talks in Oman.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the UK is ready to help monitor the new ceasefire in Gaza and assist in decommissioning the weaponry of Hamas. He was speaking in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where global leaders had gathered to witness the signing of the agreement.