Trump urges Iran to make a deal or US will 'keep blowing them away'

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran to make a deal to end U.S. and Israeli bombing or face more strikes on their country.

"They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. "We'll see if they want to do it. If they don't, we're their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away."

Trump spoke after a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that Washington's proposal for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is "one-sided and unfair" but that diplomacy continues.

Trump said Iranians were talking with the U.S. and described them as desperate to make a deal, characterizations Tehran has denied.

He also cast Iranian officials as "great negotiators" and said he was seeking an agreement that opens the Strait of Hormuz and shuts down Tehran's military ambitions.

Trump suggested that a deal might not ultimately come together.

"I don't know if we'll be able to do that," he said of the prospects for a deal. I don't know if we're willing to do that."

-Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Scott Malone/Reuters