Trump rejects unfreezing Iranian assets, or lifting sanctions upfront as part of deal

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 7, 2026 08:43 PM IST

US President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected the proposal of unfreezing Iranian assets, or lifting any sanctions upfront as part of any peace deal with Tehran amid a fragile ceasefire.

During an interview with NBC News, the US president said he would consider unfreezing Iranian assets, or lifting any sanctions after an agreement is made. “Comes after. Yeah. If they behave, if ​they do a good job, we start talking. Yeah,” Trump said.

When asked about Iran’s highly enriched uranium, Trump said the US will seize and destroy the over 400 kg stockpile, either with or without Tehran. “We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” he said.

The Republican leader also talked about Lebanon and called for more ‘surgical’ strikes on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. “I would like to see Lebanon experience a better life. I would like to see a more surgical attack against Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical,” Trump told NBC News.

This comes as Iran’s spokesperson for the parliament’s national security commission, Ebrahim Rezaei, threatened that Tehran will “deliver a decisive and painful response” to the Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

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