Iran live updates: Trump says US not in 'a hurry' to agree deal

Iranian Defense Minister Mehrdad Akhlaghi warned in a statement on Sunday that Tehran is "committed to strengthening combat readiness and ensuring an immediate, effective and proportionate response to any threat, anywhere, without geographical limits."

Akhlaghi's statement -- which was published by the semi-official Mehr News Agency -- came amid concerns that the U.S. and Israel may soon resume strikes on the country amid stalled peace negotiations. President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. will not launch any new attacks until after the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

Several other top Iranian officials and commanders have issued similar warnings. In comments published by Mehr on Sunday, Mohsen Rezaei -- the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a key military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei -- said any new strikes would be met with "devastating" retaliation."

President Donald Trump said on Saturday during a Halloween event at Mar-a-Lago that the U.S. has no hard timetable regarding negotiations with Iran over a possible deal to end the ongoing war with Iran.

"We're not in that much of a hurry from the standpoint that we've knocked out their navy," Trump said. "We've knocked out their air force, we've knocked out their anti-aircraft, we've knocked out almost every piece of military equipment they have."

Trump also said the U.S. had "knocked out" much of Iran's manufacturing capability and nuclear sites. "We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in ten minutes."

-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr

Even as reports emerge of tankers on fire in the Strait of Hormuz and a series of strikes across the region, Iranian state media has confirmed that a Qatari delegation is now in Tehran to “continue Qatar’s mediation efforts.”

The delegation’s arrival comes amid growing concern that President Donald Trump is preparing military strikes against Iran after the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, in New York, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, HE Sheikha Alya, called for the unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz during a Security Council meeting on Friday.

She also emphasized Qatar’s "categorical rejection of using the Strait of Hormuz as a means of political pressure." She emphasized that freedom of navigation and transit passage rights through this vital waterway, in accordance with international law, are firmly established principles that are not subject to negotiation.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy is claiming three oil tankers exploded and caught fire while attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz Friday, Iran's state-run television IRIB reported.

The IRGC claimed the tankers were using an "unauthorized route," IRIB reported. The IRGC Navy said a super tanker exploded after hitting a naval mine.

The U.S. military has called past claims from the IRGC, about naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, "false." The claims made by the IRGC have not been verified.