Asked if the US trusts messaging coming out of Tehran, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that anything Iran says to Washington privately “will be tested”.

“We will ensure that they are being held accountable to their word, and if they are not, the president has laid out the military consequences that the Iranian regime will see if they don’t hold true to the words that we are hearing privately behind the scenes,” she has responded.

She added that Iranian leadership appears “more reasonable” behind the scenes than “previous leaders who are no longer on planet Earth”, adding that previous leaders were killed for “lying to the United States”.

“This is another historic opportunity for Iran to do the right thing: to rid themselves of their nuclear ambitions and to come to a deal with this president of the administration, or they will see the grave consequences of the United States armed forces, which they are continuing to see every day throughout this operation,” Leavitt has stated.