UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash has urged Tehran not to overplay its hand in the stop-start negotiations during the Middle East war’s fragile ceasefire, AFP reports.

With US negotiators focusing on Iran’s potential development of an atomic weapon, Gargash said: “The Iranian nuclear programme was our second or third worry, now it’s our first worry.

“We see that Iran is capable of using any weapon that it has in its hands, which is what we learned,” he added.

Gargash said the Iran-blockaded Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of global oil production, must go back to normal, and cautioned against an inconclusive ceasefire.

“Negotiations just to reach a ceasefire and sow the seeds for further conflict in the future is not what we’re seeking,” he said.