Trump rejects unfreezing Iranian assets, or lifting sanctions upfront as part of deal

US President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected the proposal of unfreezing Iranian assets, or lifting any sanctions upfront as part of any peace deal with Tehran amid a fragile ceasefire.

During an interview with NBC News, the US president said he would consider unfreezing Iranian assets, or lifting any sanctions after an agreement is made. “Comes after. Yeah. If they behave, if ​they do a good job, we start talking. Yeah,” Trump said.

.@POTUS: “I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months; much of it has been under a pretty good form of ceasefire.” pic.twitter.com/ZKAIsMfRCg

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 7, 2026

Ultimatums over uranium stockpiles

When asked about Iran’s highly enriched uranium, Trump said the US will seize and destroy the over 400 kg stockpile, either with or without Tehran.

“We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” he said.

Calls for surgical military strategy in Lebanon

The Republican leader also talked about Lebanon and called for more ‘surgical’ strikes on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

“I would like to see Lebanon experience a better life. I would like to see a more surgical attack against Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical,” Trump told NBC News.

Threats of decisive retaliation

This comes as Iran’s spokesperson for the parliament’s national security commission, Ebrahim Rezaei, threatened that Tehran will “deliver a decisive and painful response” to the Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

.@POTUS on the Iranian regime: “It’s a very hard thing for them… There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice. And it takes a little while — you’re talking about 47 years of getting away with whatever they wanted.” https://t.co/vBzPYzutc0 pic.twitter.com/YTYG1DYvCN

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 7, 2026

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In a post on X, Rezaei wrote “These rabid dogs must be disciplined and put back in their place. Look at the sky over the occupied lands tonight.”

High-stakes diplomacy and missing leadership

US and Israel launched attack on Iran on February 28 and a ceasefire came into effect on April 8. Since then, talks have been ongoing between Trump administration and Iranian delegation to negotiate a ​potential peace deal.

Issuing another threat to Iran, Trump, on Sunday said, “We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going ‌to ⁠blow the hell out of them.”

The president further said that he would be willing to speak with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since Washington and Tel Aviv’s strikes began.

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Providing an update on Mojtaba’s whereabouts, Trump said, “I don’t want to say whether or not I ​know where he is, but there’s a good ​probability that ⁠I do,” NBC News reported.