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Hello there, and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to live from London this Sunday. I'm Sean Lay.

The head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council says structural arrangements for negotiations with the United States are progressing.

But his Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with the phrase iron fist in a velvet glove and Donald Trump's present disposition towards Iran has echoes of that.

Here's the US president speaking on the margins of a social event, hence why he's not

properly miced up. We have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there, very close,

a couple of days, and hopefully we'll make a deal. If we don't make a deal, then we'll find out

whether or not he was right. The he, the President, referred to, is Iran's supreme leader,

who issued a bellicose warning.

More on that shortly. Just in case they can't make a deal, the aircraft carrier, the USS

Abraham Lincoln, is cruising around the Persian Gulf. It's also emerged in the last two hours.

The general Dan Kane, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Iazmir, his Israeli counterpart at the Pentagon on Friday.

These two allies together conducted the strikes which debilitated Iran's nuclear facilities last summer.

Iranian media had reported that Tehran would conduct live fire exercises in the Gulf this week.

Although the foreign minister had also referred to them on Sunday,

the government said there would be no such military exercises,

and the media reports had simply been wrong.

It was on Sunday morning that Ayatollah Ali Hamenei, Iran's supreme leader,

warned of the consequences of an American attack.

When you... leader warned of the consequences of an American attack.

When you hear them talking about war, saying things like,

...