US President Donald Trump has said Iran has “an interest in reaching an agreement” as negotiations over the country’s nuclear programme 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 Iran, as talks aimed at ending the conflict and addressing Iran’s nuclear programme have so far failed to produce results.
Earlier, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran "remains committed to diplomacy and peaceful solutions".
Regional tensions have remained high since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 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 travelling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran had received messages from Washington indicating that President Donald Trump's administration was willing to continue negotiations.
Iran's chief negotiator and speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Tuesday that Washington should accept Tehran's proposal for peace or face "failure" after Trump rejected an Iranian counteroffer and warned the ceasefire was on "life support".
"There is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as laid out in the 14-point proposal. Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another," Ghalibaf said.
