Trump says he will not provide sanctions relief for Iran until deal complete

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will not sign off on any effort to ease sanctions on Iran until a deal to permanently end the war on Tehran is finalized.

“I’m not doing any relief until they sign an agreement. When they sign an agreement, we can get that place built up again and have something that’s really a good country for the people, but no, we haven’t offered anything,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.

Trump earlier on Wednesday said negotiations are in their “final stages” but insisted he is “in no hurry” to complete them.

“I just wonder whether or not they have the good of the people, because some of the things they’re doing, to me, means they don’t have the good of the people, and they have to have the good of the people. There’s a lot of anger now in Iran, because people are living so badly,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran for his second visit to Iran in less than a week, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported. After his arrival, Naqvi met with his Iranian counterpart Eskandar Momeni at the Interior Ministry.

Pakistan has played a key role in mediating efforts to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Regional tensions boiled over Feb. 28 when the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran, prompting Iran to retaliate with barrages of drones and missiles that hit targets across the region as Tehran shuttered the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement. Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining a blockade on vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway.

Asked by a reporter if he is on the “same page on Iran” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump responded succinctly: “Yeah.”

“He’ll do whatever I want him to do. He’s a very, very good man,” Trump said.

Later, addressing graduates at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, Trump reiterated claims of decimating Iran’s military, adding: “The only question is, do we go and finish it up, or are they going to be signing a document? Let’s see what happens.”

“We hit them very hard. We may have to hit them even harder, but maybe not. We’re not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon and blow up the entire Middle East, Israel,” he said.