The United States warned yesterday it was “more than capable” of resuming its war with Iran after President Donald Trump said any peace deal must adhere to his red lines, including Tehran never being able to develop nuclear weapons.
The White House had signalled Trump was close to a decision on a potential deal, though Tehran denied there was a final agreement on ending the conflict.
US sources said the deal was waiting on Trump’s sign-off, but he made no decision after a White House Situation Room meeting on Friday.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, while attending a defence summit in Singapore, said yesterday that Washington was “more than capable” of restarting the war if necessary, adding “our stockpiles are more than suited for that.”
US Central Command (Centcom) posted on X that American forces “remain present and vigilant across the region.”
Despite a ceasefire that has largely held since April, there have been occasional flare-ups.
Iran’s IRNA state news agency said air defences shot down a drone yesterday, citing the army.
Nevertheless, diplomacy has continued, including to stop parallel fighting in Lebanon, which Iran has insisted be part of any deal to end the war and where Israeli forces have advanced further even as military delegations from both nations met at the Pentagon on Friday.
Trump said his priorities for any deal included Iran agreeing to never develop nuclear weapons and the re-opening of the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
“President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines,” a White House official said, adding: “Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei pushed back on Trump’s conditions, saying the Islamic republic “said goodbye to the language of ‘must’ 47 years ago.”
Exchanges of messages were continuing, he added, but “no final agreement has been reached.”
In his social media post, Trump said Tehran would remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz and end its closure of the waterway with “no tolls,” while the US would lift its blockade of Iranian ports.
The two countries would also co-ordinate on removing and destroying Iran’s enriched uranium, he said, adding that “no money will be exchanged, until further notice.”
Iran’s Fars news agency, however, cited sources as saying Tehran was demanding “the immediate release of $12 billion” before moving to the next phase of negotiations.
On the toll-free reopening of Hormuz, the sources said “no such clause appears in the text of the agreement,” while Trump’s comment on destroying Iran’s nuclear material “is fundamentally baseless.”
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