Washington: US President Donald Trump stated that he believed Iran wanted to negotiate a deal to avoid a military confrontation. He added that the "armada" near Iran was larger than the one used to bring Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.

Ongoing tensions between Iran and US

Trump’s statement came amid tense tensions between Washington and Tehran, following protests in Iran over economic crisis. Thousands of people have lost their lives and several others were arrested in Iran after the protests began. Trump openly backed protesters and threated Iranian regime if any protester was awarded capital punishment. This led to war of words between both sides. Trump later said that Iran decided not to award further capital punishment after his pressure.

Large armada, flotilla heading towards Iran

"We have a large armada, flotilla, call it whatever you want, heading toward Iran right now, even larger than what we had in Venezuela," the president told reporters. "Hopefully we'll make a deal. If we do make a deal, that's good. If we don't make a deal, we'll see what happens."

When asked whether a deadline for deal with Iran on the latter’s nuclear programme and , ballistic missiles, Trump added "yeah I have". He further said, "only they know for sure" what it was, news agency AFP reported.  "I can say this, they do want to make a deal,"

Satellite images suggest construction at 2 nuclear sites

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In the meantime, satellite images suggested construction at two Iranian nuclear sites which were bombed by Israel and the United States last year. The development raised concerns that Tehran was concealing efforts to recover sensitive materials

The images were taken by Planet Labs PBC. These show new roofs built over structures at Iran’s nuclear sites of Isfahan and Natanz. The latest constructions showed the first significant activity, which were visible by satellite.