'If they behave': Trump says Iran assets stay frozen until peace deal is complete

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump on Sunday, June 7, clarified that he would not unfreeze Iranian assets or lift any sanctions before a peace deal is reached.

The update came two days after senior Iranian adviser Mohsen Rezaei said that the peace deal between Washington hinges on the Trump administration agreeing to release the frozen assets worth $24 billion.

Trump links Iran asset relief to peace agreement

Trump, during an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on ‘Meet the Press’, said that the subject of unfreezing assets or removing sanctions on Iran so that its economy can thrive “comes after” the peace deal is finalized.

He further indicated that if Iran behaves properly, he might consider those steps, saying, "Yeah. If they behave, if ​they do a good job, we start talking. Yeah."

Talking about the ceasefire, Trump said that he was not demanding that Lebanon be ​a part of a short-term deal with Tehran.

"I think they'd like ​to see it, but I'm not demanding," Trump said in the interview recorded on Friday.

Trump says he will 'blow hell out of Iran' if deal isn't secured

“We’re very close to a deal, ‌or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News.

The president earlier expressed his willingness to meet Iran’s Supreme ‌Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since being wounded in US strikes at the beginning of the conflict.

During the interview, Trump also affirmed that if the deal is not finalized, he will use military force to retrieve and destroy Iran's highly enriched uranium.

“If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump said in the interview.

“And we will go with them, or without them. But we won’t have people shooting at us, OK?” he added.

“Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly. And we’ll wait till we do that before we go, in which case we’ll have safety either way,” he said.

Iranian adviser suggests no deal without unfreezing of assets

“The negotiations are at a deadlock and (US President Donald) Trump must break this deadlock,” Mohsen Rezaei told CNN in Tehran, adding that “The ball is in Trump’s court.”

According to Rezaei, Iran is seeking the release of $12 billion in frozen assets immediately after signing an interim agreement with the United States, with an additional $12 billion to be released later.

Rezaei characterized the demand as a test of trust between Washington and Tehran.