US President Donald Trump said his administration’s negotiations with Iran were “in the final stages” on Wednesday, while simultaneously warning of further attacks, as a fragile ceasefire concluded its sixth week with no sign of an end to the war.

The US launched “Operation Epic Fury” close to three months ago, in a war that began with strikes inside Iran alongside key ally Israel, which has since spread across the wider Middle East region, killing thousands and disrupting global supply chains.

“We’re in the final stages of Iran. We’ll see what happens. Either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

“Ideally, I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.”

When Trump was asked at Joint Base Andrews near Washington about where negotiations with Iran stood, he said: “It’s right on the borderline, believe me.”

“If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go. We have to get the right answers – it would have to be a complete 100 per cent good answers,” he said.