Trump open to Iran talks only if it abandons nuclear program, says US official

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Sunday said President Donald Trump is willing to engage in talks with Iran only on condition that Tehran fully abandon its nuclear program.

"The President has also expressed a willingness to take whatever action is necessary. All options are on the table," Waltz told Fox News on Sunday, leaving the option of diplomatic channels open.

"They [Iran] are an irrational actor that we cannot allow to have their finger on the button," he added.

He explained that Trump is willing "to talk to Iran" only on condition of giving up the "entire [nuclear] program and not play games as we've seen Iran do in the past".

Waltz said that Iran's nuclear program - which the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog last year said is "weeks not months" from a weapon - could not only pose a threat to the region, but globally.

"President Trump is absolutely serious, deadly serious, when he says Iran can never have a nuke, and certainly not on his watch," Waltz said.

"That not only would be existential for Israel, I think it would be existential for the entire world, because it could kick off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East," he added.

'No outreach from Iran'

Trump's state secretary, Marco Rubio, told CBS later on Sunday that the US administration does not "have any outreach from Iran."

"Ideally, yeah, I would love to wake up one day and hear the news that Iran has decided not to pursue a nuclear weapon, not to sponsor terrorism, and re-engage in the world as a normal government. We've had no indication of any of that, not just now, but for 30 years," he said.

Rubio also hinted at a more stringent deal with Iran compared with the 2015 agreement. "Past that efforts that Iran has undertaken diplomatically have been only about how to extend the time frame that- but continue to enrich and rep- and- and in addition to sponsored terrorism, in addition to build these long-range weapons, in addition to sow instability throughout the region."

Rubio had earlier, during a press conference in Jerusalem, said that Iran is the single greatest threat to the Middle East.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, he said: "Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people that call this region home is Iran."

"There can never be a nuclear Iran. A nuclear Iran, that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen. The President's been clear about that as well."