Iran threatens to target US bases if conflict breaks out

Last week, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said enrichment is “key” to Iran’s nuclear programme and that Washington “cannot have a say” on the issue.

During the interview with the New York Post’s podcast “Pod Force One”, which was recorded on Monday, Trump said he was losing hope a deal could be reached.

“I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more — less confident about it. They seem to be delaying and I think that’s a shame. I am less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” he said.

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“Something happened to them but I am much less confident of a deal being made… May be they don’t wanna make a deal, what can I say? And may be they do. There is nothing final.”

Trump maintained that Washington would not allow Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons, saying “it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying”.

On May 31, after the fifth round of talks, Iran said it had received “elements” of a US proposal for a nuclear deal, with Araghchi later saying the text contained “ambiguities”.

Iran has said it will present a counter-proposal to the latest draft from Washington, which it had criticised for failing to offer relief from sanctions — a key demand for Tehran, which has been reeling under their weight for years.

On Monday, the United Nations nuclear watchdog began a Board of Governors meeting in Vienna that will last until Friday to discuss Iran’s atomic activities and other issues.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting followed a report issued by it criticising “less than satisfactory” cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites.