US President Donald Trump said Iran appeared willing to make a deal to end the war, but the terms were “not good enough yet,” while warning that Washington could carry out further strikes on the Iranian oil export hub of Kharg Island.

In a telephone interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said Tehran wanted negotiations but insisted any agreement would require Iran to abandon nuclear ambitions.

“Iran wanted to make a deal, but I’m unwilling to do so now because the terms are not good enough yet,” Trump said. He declined to specify the terms but said an Iranian commitment to abandon nuclear ambitions would be part of any potential agreement.

Trump also said several countries had committed to helping secure the Strait of Hormuz, though he refused to name them.

The president said US strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island, a critical hub for Iranian oil exports, and warned more attacks could follow.

“We may hit it a few more times just for fun,” Trump said, while dismissing concerns about rising oil prices. “There’s so much oil, gas – there’s so much out there, but you know, it’s being clogged up a little bit. It’ll be unclogged very soon.”

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Trump also raised questions about the fate of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of slain former leader Ali Khamenei.

“I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” Trump said, noting that Khamenei’s first message was issued in writing rather than on camera.

“I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender,” he added, before describing reports of his death as a “rumour”.

Earlier, Trump had threatened further strikes on Kharg Island and urged allies to deploy warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil and gas transit route.

Writing on social media, Trump said countries that rely on oil shipments through the strait should take responsibility for protecting the passage.

“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!” he wrote. “The US will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.”

The comments marked an escalation in rhetoric from Trump, who had previously said US forces targeted only military facilities on Kharg Island. They also appeared to undermine diplomatic efforts, with three sources telling Reuters that the Trump administration had already rejected attempts by Middle Eastern allies to start negotiations aimed at ending the war.

Read More: US now begging others, even China, to help it make Hormuz safe, says Iran’s FM

As the conflict entered its third week, both sides appeared to be preparing for a prolonged fight.
Tehran rejected the possibility of any ceasefire until US and Israeli airstrikes stop, while Iranian forces continued strikes across the region.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had carried out missile and drone strikes on targets in Israel and three US bases in the region, calling the attacks the first round of retaliation for workers killed in Iran’s industrial areas. The Israeli military said it was intercepting incoming launches.

Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed 10 drones in Riyadh and the east, the defence ministry said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they no had connection to the attack, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

A drone attack disrupted a major United Arab Emirates energy hub on Saturday, and Washington warned US citizens to leave Iraq after a missile attack on the US embassy in Baghdad overnight on Friday.

Since Israel and the United States began air attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, more than 2,000 people — mostly in Iran — have been killed, according to reports from governments and state media. At least 15 people were killed when an airstrike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Iran warned civilians in the United Arab Emirates to evacuate ports, docks and what it called “American hideouts,” saying US forces had targeted Iran from those areas. The UAE denied that strikes on Kharg Island overnight Friday had been launched from its territory.

Calling any facility associated with the United States a “legitimate target,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged US industries to leave the region.

Russia is supplying Iran with Shahed drones to use against the US and Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN. Shahed drones have been linked to other attacks on countries in the region, although their manufacturers are not always clear.

Oil market disruptions also appeared set to continue. Some oil-loading operations were suspended in the emirate of Fujairah after a drone attack, according to industry sources.

The emirate’s media office said the drone was intercepted, but civil defence crews were still trying late Saturday to extinguish a fire caused by falling debris.

Meanwhile, Iran downplayed the extent of damage on Kharg Island. The US military’s US Central Command said it had struck more than 90 targets there, including naval mine storage facilities, missile bunkers and other military sites.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed speculation by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that Mojtaba Khamenei had been wounded.

“There is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties,” Araqchi said.

Iran’s defence ministry said nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones had been launched toward the UAE, while warning residents to leave areas near Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port and Fujairah port.

Fujairah, located outside the Strait of Hormuz, is a major outlet for about one million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil, equivalent to about 1% of global demand.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, urged China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. None of those countries gave any immediate indication they would do so.

Takayuki Kobayashi, Japan’s ruling party policy chief, declined to rule out the possibility, but told public broadcaster NHK that “the (legal) threshold is very high.”

Japan interprets its pacifist postwar constitution to mean it can deploy its military if the nation’s survival is threatened, but the government would have to invoke a 2015 security law that has not been used.

France is seeking to assemble a coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the security situation stabilizes, while Britain is discussing a range of options with allies to ensure the security of shipping, officials have said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the Strait of Hormuz should ​remain closed.

Israeli spies held

Twenty people were arrested in northwestern Iran for attempting to cooperate with Israel, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, citing a statement by the West Azerbaijan province’s prosecutor office.

They are accused of sending location details on Iran’s military and security assets to Israel.

Israel has launched a new phase of its assault on Iran, targeting security checkpoints based on tip-offs from informants on the ground, a source briefed on Israel’s military strategy told Reuters last week.