President Donald Trump told NBC News' "Meet the Press" that the United States will not unfreeze Iranian assets or lift sanctions until a peace deal with Tehran is fully completed, rejecting Iran's demand that $24 billion in frozen funds be released as a precondition for any agreement.
The position draws a hard line at a moment when U.S. and Iranian forces are still exchanging fire, Gulf allies are absorbing missile strikes on residential areas, and Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to choke roughly a fifth of global oil traffic.
Asked whether sanctions relief or asset releases would come before or after a deal, Trump was blunt. "Comes after," he said in the interview. Pressed on whether Iran could earn goodwill concessions ahead of a formal agreement, Trump replied:
"Yeah. If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking. Yeah."
That framing puts the burden squarely on Tehran, and it stands in sharp contrast to the Iranian position laid out just days earlier by Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader. Rezaei told CNN that a peace deal to end the three-month-old conflict hinged on the release of $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the United States.
Iran's negotiating demands extend well beyond unfreezing assets. Tehran is seeking sanctions waivers on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports, and continued leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carried about a fifth of global oil traffic before the conflict began. Iran has effectively blocked the strait, a move that has rattled energy markets worldwide.
Trump signaled he sees the frozen assets not as bargaining chips for Iran but as a potential source of compensation for America's Gulf allies. A source familiar with the matter said the administration will attempt to redirect Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and repairs of damage caused by Iranian strikes. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess the costs of that damage, a step that suggests Washington intends to present Tehran with a bill, not a check.
The source also said the U.S. will consider using Iranian assets to cover any future destruction, a provision that would give Washington ongoing financial leverage even after a deal is signed. That approach mirrors the kind of accountability framework the Trump administration has pushed in domestic policy fights over federal spending.
The most consequential piece of any deal involves Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Trump said the United States would work with Iran to secure and destroy that material if an agreement is reached.
"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."
Without a deal, Trump said, the U.S. would continue military operations and seek to secure the material after degrading Iran's military capabilities. He made clear the United States would proceed with or without Iran's cooperation, but that American personnel would not operate in areas where they were under attack.
Trump described the negotiations as "very close," saying the two sides still have "a couple of points" to resolve. He claimed Iran has already conceded the central demand. "They've conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons," he said. He added that Iranian officials initially objected to proposed language that would also prohibit Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons through purchase or acquisition, not just domestic development, but later dropped their opposition.
On verification, Trump said the United States has the capability to monitor Iran's nuclear facilities using space-based surveillance technology. That claim, if accurate, would give Washington an independent check on compliance that does not depend on Iranian cooperation or international inspectors.
While diplomacy inches forward, the shooting has not stopped. U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, both near the Strait of Hormuz, early on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran. U.S. Central Command said the drones posed a threat to maritime traffic.
Late on Saturday, the U.S. military said it shot down two more Iranian attack drones threatening shipping in the strait.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards responded by saying it struck U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait's army reported that seven ballistic missiles passed over residential areas, causing material damage but no casualties. The U.S. military said six missiles were intercepted and a seventh failed to reach its target. Both Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes. In Bahrain, sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter.
The cycle of strikes and counterstrikes underscores why Trump's insistence on a deal-first approach to sanctions relief carries weight. Releasing billions in frozen assets to a government that is simultaneously firing ballistic missiles at residential neighborhoods in allied nations would be difficult to justify to American taxpayers, or to the Gulf states absorbing the damage. It is the kind of sequencing question that shapes the political stakes around any major Trump announcement.
Trump offered a striking assessment of Iran's internal power structure. He said military strikes by Israel and the United States killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He described Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as younger and "more rational" than his father, though he said Mojtaba had been seriously injured.
Trump said Mojtaba Khamenei is involved in discussions surrounding a potential agreement and that he would be open to speaking with him directly. He described there being "a good probability" of reaching a deal.
Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that a minister from mediator Pakistan traveled to Tehran on Saturday carrying a letter for Iran's supreme leader, a sign that back-channel diplomacy remains active even as missiles fly.
Trump also assessed Iran's remaining military capacity. "They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21% to 22% of their missiles. It's a lot of missiles, but it's not what it was when we first attacked," he said. The implication: three months of sustained military pressure have degraded Iran's arsenal to roughly a fifth of its pre-conflict levels.
Trump said he was not demanding that Lebanon be part of a short-term deal with Tehran, a pragmatic narrowing of the negotiating scope that could accelerate a bilateral agreement while leaving broader regional issues for later rounds.
But the region is not waiting. Israel's military said on Sunday it intercepted two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon. Lebanon reported that two army officers and a soldier were killed in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle in south Lebanon. The violence along Israel's northern border remains a parallel pressure point, even if Trump is choosing not to tie it directly to the Iran talks.
On the energy front, three sources within OPEC+ said the oil-producing group was set to agree on Sunday to a fourth consecutive monthly increase in output targets, a move that could ease global supply concerns created by Iran's blockade of the strait. The Trump administration's broader push to expand domestic energy production fits the same strategic logic: reduce the leverage that hostile regimes gain from controlling energy chokepoints.
The contrast between the Trump administration's approach and the one Iran is demanding could not be sharper. Tehran wants money up front. Washington wants compliance first, verification second, and financial relief only after the ink is dry, with a portion of those frozen assets potentially redirected to rebuild what Iranian missiles destroyed in Kuwait, Bahrain, and other Gulf states.
That sequencing matters. The Obama-era Iran nuclear deal released billions in frozen assets and sanctions relief in exchange for promises that Tehran subsequently tested, bent, and ultimately abandoned. Trump's insistence on a deal-first framework reflects a lesson that should have been obvious the first time: you do not pay in advance for commitments a regime has every incentive to break.
Trump's willingness to keep military operations running while negotiations proceed sends its own message. He said plainly that military action would continue if an agreement is not reached. That is not posturing for its own sake. It is the only kind of leverage that has historically moved Tehran, a reality that years of diplomatic wishful thinking failed to change. The same principle of holding firm against political pressure applies whether the arena is Capitol Hill or the Strait of Hormuz.
Significant questions hang over the negotiations. What specific assets is the Treasury examining for possible redirection to Gulf allies? What are the assessed costs of damage from Iranian strikes? What does the Pakistani letter to Iran's supreme leader contain? And what independent evidence supports the claim that Ali Khamenei was killed and Mojtaba Khamenei seriously injured?
These are not small details. The identity and condition of Iran's actual decision-maker shapes every assumption about whether a deal can hold. If Mojtaba Khamenei is indeed running the show, his willingness to negotiate, and his capacity to enforce compliance, will determine whether any agreement is worth the paper it is printed on.
For now, the administration's position is clear: no relief without results. In a region where promises are cheap and missiles are not, that is the only framework that deserves to be taken seriously.
