Trump says Iran has interest in reaching deal

US president hints at possible resumption of strikes

WASHINGTON:

US President Donald Trump has said Iran has "an interest in reaching an agreement" as negotiations over the country's nuclear program and the ongoing conflict continue without resolution.

In a telephone interview with French broadcaster BFMTV on Saturday, Trump said he was uncertain whether a deal would soon be reached.

"I have no idea. If they don't, they're going to have a very bad time. They have an interest in reaching an agreement," the American president told the BFMTV correspondent in the US.

According to several media reports, Trump is expected to decide in the coming hours whether or not to resume strikes against the Iranian regime, as talks aimed at ending the conflict and addressing Iran's nuclear program have so far failed to produce results.

Regional tensions have remained high since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, prompting retaliatory attacks by Tehran against Israel and US allies in Gulf countries, along with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement. Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining a blockade on vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway.

Iran has effectively shut the strait, which carried one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply before the US and Israel launched attacks on February 28. The disruption to shipping has caused the biggest oil supply crisis in history, pushing up oil prices.

Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament's national security committee, said on Saturday that Tehran had prepared a mechanism to manage traffic through the strait along a designated route that would be unveiled soon.

Azizi said only commercial vessels and parties cooperating with Iran would benefit, and that fees would be collected for specialised services provided under the mechanism.

Thousands of Iranians were killed in the US and Israeli airstrikes. Thousands more have been killed in Lebanon in fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, though Israel and Lebanon agreed on Friday to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire that has tamped down the conflict there.

The US paused its attacks last month but began a port blockade. As of Saturday, 78 commercial ships had been redirected and four disabled to ensure compliance with the blockade, the US military said.

Tehran, which carried out strikes against Israel, U.S. bases and Gulf states after the war began, has said it will not unblock the strait until the US ends its blockade. Trump has threatened to resume attacks if Iran does not agree to a deal.

"We don't want them to have a nuclear weapon, we want the straits open," Trump said in Beijing, alongside Xi.

Iran, which has long denied it intends to build a nuclear weapon, has refused to end nuclear research or relinquish its hidden stockpile of enriched uranium.