United States President Donald Trump said on Friday that he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal to avoid military action, adding that the US “armada” near Iran was bigger than the one he dispatched to topple Venezuela’s leader.

The development came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is prepared to resume talks with Washington, but they should be fair and not include Iran’s defence capabilities.

Trump made these remarks while addressing reporters in the Oval Office of the White House.

“We have a large armada, flotilla, you can call it whatever you want, heading to Iran right now. Even larger than what we had in Venezuela,” the president stated.

“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,” Trump added.

Asked if Iran had been given any deadline for a deal on its nuclear programme, ballistic missiles and other issues, Trump replied, “Only they know for sure.” He added that he had communicated that directly.

“We’ll see how it all works out. They have to float someplace, so they might as well float near Iran,” Trump said, replying to a question about pulling back the US presence.

However, he cited what he said was Iran’s decision to halt executions of protesters as evidence to show Tehran was ready to comply.

“I can say this, they do want to make a deal,” Trump said.

Trump declined to say whether, if Iran did not reach a deal, he planned a repeat of the dramatic operation in Venezuela, in which US forces captured President Nicolas Maduro.

“I don’t want to talk about anything having to do with what I’m doing militarily,” he said.