US President Donald Trump said that he is not pushing for the inclusion of Lebanon in a possible short-term agreement with Iran.
„I think Tehran would like it, but I am not pushing“, the American leader said in an interview with NBC News.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Al Mayadeen that the conflict between Iran and the US will be resolved only if Israel stops military operations in Lebanon.
Trump again stated that the United States and Iran are very close to a deal.
„We are very close. A few issues remain and they do not seem big. "They have acknowledged the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons," Trump said in response to a question about a possible timeline for a deal with Tehran.
Trump said that a possible agreement with Iran does not include the immediate release of the Islamic Republic's assets.
"If they behave properly, if they do a good job, then we will start talking about that," he added.
Mohsen Rezaei, the military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, noted earlier that a potential deal between the United States and Iran hinged on Washington's willingness to unfreeze $24 billion in Iranian assets.
Trump did not rule out the use of American ground forces in a conflict with Iran, but said such a scenario was unlikely.
"We could use them." "It's unlikely, but I believe we'll keep them there until we're done," he said.
According to the US president, the roughly 50,000 US troops stationed in the Middle East are "not in danger."
Regardless of the outcome of the talks with Iran, the United States intends to seize the Islamic Republic's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Trump said.
"We're coming for the uranium with or without them. And nobody's going to shoot at us," he said. "If we don't make a deal, then we're going to eliminate them very harshly, militarily."
"If we make a deal and everything is amicable, we'll work together. The equipment will be ours. "We will extract it and destroy it either on site or transport it somewhere," he said.