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

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran is prepared for "both defense and diplomacy," amid ongoing talks between Iranian and Qatari representatives over a possible peace deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war against the country that began in February.

“Our armed forces have a very specific mission, and by leveraging the lessons learned from the two previous wars, they are now significantly stronger than before,” Araghchi said, as quoted by the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou

Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in comments broadcast by state television on Sunday that Tehran had received a letter from Vice President JD Vance sent in a bid to revive stalled peace talks.

"The tone has completely changed. The tone of this letter is different from the one [President Donald] Trump wrote to the martyred Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei]," Rezaei said, adding that he had not yet responded to the message.

Rezaei said Tehran is still waiting "for the Americans' final response" to Tehran's latest proposed deal. But Rezaei, who serves as a key military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said Iran will not capitulate.

"If Trump and America are not punished here, tomorrow other countries will think that they can attack Iran without paying a price," he said. "Our most important deterrent is to end this war in a way that ensures no one ever dares to attack Iran again."

-ABC News' Rashid Haddou

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