“I hear that the negotiations themselves are actually going very well,” Trump said at a press conference in the Oval Office, adding that an agreement could be reached this weekend.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gave a different picture in an interview earlier Wednesday with the Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen.
The communication channel with the US is still open, but no “tangible progress” has been made in the negotiations, Araghchi said.
Trump wants to keep negotiations on the US war with Iran separate from the talks and the conflict in Lebanon.
“I want a separate thing, because it is separate,” the president said.
However, Tehran has demanded that an agreement to end the war with the United States should also bring peace to Lebanon.
Israel has threatened to bomb Beirut’s southern suburbs in an escalation of its extensive military operation against Lebanese Hezbollah.
US President Donald Trump has claimed that he has received promises from both Israel and Hezbollah to avoid an escalation, but new attacks occurred as recently as Tuesday.
If Beirut is attacked, the war in the Middle East would flare up with full force again, Araghchi warned.
“Our armed forces are ready to attack Israel if it attacks Beirut,” he told Al Mayadeen.
