The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has said this Monday that there are "advances" to put an end to the war undertaken against Iran, although he has insisted on keeping the naval blockade of Tehran in the Strait of Hormuz.
"It doesn't seem like military action is something very necessary, but we have it loaded and prepared, ready to use it if there is a reason. There is an advance toward the end of this conflict. I think it's going to end pretty soon," he said at a press conference from the White House.
During his appearance, Trump emphasized that Washington has deployed a third aircraft carrier in the area "just in case." "We have plenty," he stressed. "They are loaded and ready and I hope we don't have to use them," he added.
Iran denies contacts and accuses Trump of spreading "fake news"
Meanwhile, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, has firmly rejected the words of the U.S. leader about alleged progress to close the military confrontation between the two countries.
Rezaei branded Trump’s statements as "fake news" and called on the United States to accept a surrender on the terms set by Tehran.
"The war against Iran has already ruined the Government of the United States, but Washington is agitating like a desperate player. Withdraw. Stop making 'fake news' about imaginary conversations. Stop denying the new order in Western Asia. It’s time to surrender to the seven conditions that Iran has repeatedly established," Rezaei said through a message on social media.
At the same time, Trump circulated another message on social media on Monday in which he claims that Washington’s Arab partners have conveyed to him their desire to preserve the "naval blockade" on Iran.
"Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and others prefer the 'status quo,' in other words, that the Greatest Naval Blockade in History and the new Iron Gate Operation continue," he explained.
The U.S. president has also reiterated that Iran "cannot have a nuclear weapon and that is not negotiable." The United States "has them loaded and ready (...), but I think it seems quite unlikely."
Dana White rules out being the White House spokesperson
Trump made these remarks at a press conference in which he appeared accompanied by the CEO of the mixed martial arts promoter UFC, Dana White, whom he offered on Saturday the post of White House press secretary. White took the opportunity to publicly decline the offer.
"I have no political ambitions," the businessman clarified at the start of his address, explaining that he had not spoken earlier because "I didn't want to be disrespectful and say anything until he (Trump) said something."
Next, the occupant of the Oval Office said that he was "having a very bad day in the press" when he mentioned the person in charge of the UFC as a possible new spokesperson, which he described as a comment made in jest: "I don't know why it occurred to me to call him by name; he's my friend for a long time. I said, 'I think I'm going to make Dana White my new press secretary,' and I sent it to a press group; I was joking in a way," he said.
"Then they wrote the story as if I wasn't joking and you were flooded and I was flooded," he added about the 24 hours prior to the appearance, which White has described as "madness."
The head of the UFC, although he has pointed out that he doesn't say "no to anything" to the Republican leader, ended up making his refusal clear at the end of the press conference, when Trump asked him, "Dana, would you like to be press secretary of the United States of America (...) or would you rather stay with this ridiculous UFC?"
"Thank you for the offer, sir. I don't want to get into politics," White replied, to which the president, in a lighthearted tone, said he was "devastated" before bringing the event to a close and dismissing the journalists.