Washington’s ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker says the Iran-US interim deal was “always performance-based” with one of the conditions being Tehran “cannot terrorise vessels” in the Strait of Hormuz, Al Jazeera reports.

He told US media that President Trump “wants a deal with Iran” but he defended recent US strikes.

“Right now, as President Trump has said … this country is controlled by a bunch of crazy people, and ultimately they’re going to have to understand the United States is very serious about this,” Whitaker said.