US President Donald Trump said in an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, which aired on Fox News on Saturday night that the US will get what it wants from Iran.
Trump added that he is in no hurry to reach a deal with Iran and once again stressed that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
“We've defeated their military, essentially defeated their military. I would rather get a deal because we can open the strait immediately upon signing. The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons," he stressed.
“They've agreed to that, and it was very interesting. They originally said ‘we will not develop a nuclear weapon’. I said, ‘Well, what happens if you buy a nuclear weapon?’ So now it says ‘we will not develop or in any way purchase a military weapon.’ That's a big difference," added Trump.
He continued, “We're getting what we want slowly. Very tough negotiators. It takes a long time. I'm in no hurry. I'd like to say I'm in a hurry because, you know, gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down, but if you're going to be in a hurry, you're not going to make a good deal."
“And slowly but surely, we're getting, I think, what we want. And if we don't get what we want, we're going to end it a different way," warned Trump.
The interview aired a day after Trump held consultations in the Situation Room to discuss a potential deal with Iran. The consultations lasted about two hours, but the president did not reach a decision on any new deal.
Tehran, meanwhile, flatly denied claims that a conclusive diplomatic agreement has been reached with Washington.
Speaking on behalf of the regime, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei clarified that despite a continuous, fluid exchange of messages between the two adversarial nations, a final understanding remains elusive.
The spokesperson adopted a fiercely defiant tone regarding diplomatic pressure, noting that the Islamic Republic refuses to accept unilateral ultimatums from foreign powers.
Baghaei said Iran “said goodbye to the language of ‘must’ 47 years ago" and that Western governments cannot dictate terms to the Islamic Republic.
“We make our own decisions based on the interests and rights of the Iranian people," he asserted.
Baghaei also criticized the US naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, declaring the US naval actions illegal from the very beginning. He further characterized the deployment as both a violation of the ceasefire and a disruption of international freedom of navigation.
Tehran would wait to see whether the United States follows through in practice on its stated position or whether it is merely a “propaganda claim," Baghaei stated. “If they do it, it means stopping an unlawful act they started a few weeks ago and should never have committed in the first place," he added.
Concluding his remarks on the status of the ongoing Pakistani-mediated backchannel talks, the spokesperson reiterated that while active communications are still being exchanged through intermediaries, no final agreement had been reached between the two governments.