US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Washington plans to use some frozen Iranian funds to purchase American agricultural products for Iran.
Speaking at the White House, the President said, “Iran wants to make a deal with us very badly. We probably will. But the Strait is open. Yesterday they took out 19 million barrels of oil, that’s the most in the history of Strait."
“We knocked the hell out of them, and now we're negotiating from a position of pure strength, pure strength. They know that…but we had to do that. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon," Trump added.
The President stated that Iran is facing food shortages and that the US would use "some of Iran's money" to buy American wheat, soybeans and corn for the country.
"We have a new market coming up, and that's called the lovely country of Iran," Trump said, adding, "It's a beautiful place. Would anybody like to go there? The Islamic Republic of Iran."
“They're having a hard time with food, and we're going to be taking some of their money and we'll spend it, and we're going to be buying wheat, soybeans and corn, a lot of it, and that process is going to be starting soon. It's going to be pretty big," he continued.
Trump’s comments came hours after Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation to talks with the US, rejected claims that unfrozen Iranian assets will be used to buy American products.
“America falsely claims our unfrozen assets will buy their agriculture. Interesting. The only crop we're harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust. It's organic, abundant, and homegrown. But apparently the US only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks," Ghalibaf wrote on social media.
The US and Iran, having recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to end the war, are negotiating a permanent agreement.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that Iran must fulfill commitments made during talks in Switzerland.
“We expect them to live up to the commitments they made in Switzerland," he told reporters. “If they don't live up to those commitments, the President has a lot of options at his disposal, including, I'm not saying he's going to do it, I'm saying including reversing these sanctions."
He added, “They've made very straight-up commitments in Switzerland, and the President has been very clear they need to keep those commitments."
Rubio also emphasized that any future agreement with Iran must be fully implemented.
“If we're going to get a deal, it has to be a real deal, and it has to be a good deal," he said. “If Iran wants to make a good and real deal, the United States is open to that. If they're not, then, of course, the President has options."
A day earlier, Trump warned that the United States could quickly resume military action against Iran, should the Islamic Republic fail to act “reasonably" following the recent agreement.
"Iran has been great - IF Iran is reasonable, IF they're smart. Otherwise, we'll have to finish the job," Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania.
He added, "As you know, we just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict... and most importantly, we are ensuring one thing very importantly- because this is why I did it... Iran will NEVER have a nuclear weapon, and they've agreed to that."