US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran has agreed to hand over its store of enriched uranium and that the two sides were "close" to a peace deal to end the war that has engulfed the Middle East.

The United States had earlier threatened to resume air-strikes on the Islamic republic and maintain a naval blockade of its ports if Tehran refused to accept a deal to solve the conflict that broke out on February 28.

Iranian state television on Thursday showed Pakistan's powerful army chief Asim Munir meeting Iran's speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation at the first round of talks last week, which ended without a deal.

The Iranian ambassador to the UN later said Tehran was "cautiously optimistic" about its negotiations on ending hostilities with the US and expressed hope for a "meaningful outcome."

US Defence Secretary Hegseth had said on Thursday: "If Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy."

Trump later told reporters that "there's a very good chance we're going to make a deal" with Tehran, adding that he would consider going to Pakistan to sign an agreement.

"They've agreed to give us back the nuclear dust," he said, using his name for the enriched uranium stockpile that the United States says could be used to build nuclear weapons.

Trump has insisted that any deal with Iran must permanently bar the Islamic republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

He launched the war claiming that Tehran was rushing to complete an atomic bomb, an assertion not backed by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Washington has reportedly sought a 20-year suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment programme, while Tehran has proposed suspending nuclear activity for five years – an offer US officials rejected.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

Its foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Iran's right to enrich uranium was "indisputable," although the level of enrichment was "negotiable".

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had told reporters on Wednesday that further talks between the US and Iran "would very likely" be in the Pakistani capital.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said no date had been set for the next round of talks.

Later at an event in Las Vegas, Trump said the US war with Iran was a "little diversion" during his second term in power, as recent polling shows the conflict's unpopularity with the American public.

"We had the best economy in the history of our country in my first term. And we're blowing it out now...And despite our little diversion to the lovely country of Iran, lovely place," Trump told the crowd of supporters.

"But we had to do that, because otherwise, bad things could happen, the really bad thing," he continued, referencing Iran's apparent nuclear potential.

An Ipsos poll conducted last weekend found 51 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents thought the Iran war was not worth the costs associated with it.

Less than a quarter of respondents, 24 percent, said the opposite. (AFP)



Edited by Raymond Yeung