Trump says the US is 'at final moments with Iran'

US President Donald Trump warned on Friday that the situation with Iran had reached a critical stage, adding that he preferred to reach a deal over Tehran's nuclear program.

“We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. “We are at final moments with Iran. Something’s going to happen very soon."

There’ll be some interesting days ahead, that’s all I can tell you. You know, we’re down to final strokes with Iran,” he added.

He also blamed former US President Joe Biden’s policies for strengthening Tehran financially, saying that Iran was “stone cold broke” during his presidency but had since amassed “$300 billion” in oil revenues.

“Oil builds up fast. It’s a nice, nice living if you have a nice little well. And they do, they have a lot of nice little wells, right?” he said.

Trump again argued that the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel "would have never happened” under his leadership. He also said that Iran had been prepared to reach a deal with the US before the 2020 election but changed course after he lost.

“I think that I would have had a deal within one month after the rigged election of 2020,” he said. “They were all set to make a deal. And then when I lost, they saw this person who’s a stupid person, very stupid person. And they said, let’s not make a deal. And they were right. He took the sanctions off. They became rich under Biden.”

While he said he preferred a diplomatic resolution, he implied that other options remained on the table.

“Hopefully we can have a peace deal. But the other will solve the problem.”

Earlier, Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network that he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei offering talks toward a deal on its nuclear program but warned that the alternative was military intervention.

Tehran's UN mission in New York said no letter from Trump has been received.