US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that he had sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking a new deal with Tehran to curb its rapidly advancing nuclear program and replace the accord the United States withdrew from during his first term in May 2018.

Iranian state media immediately picked up President Trump’s acknowledgment, contained in excerpts from an interview with Fox Business News that aired Friday, though there was no confirmation from Khamenei’s office that any message had been received.

The interview will be broadcast in full on Sunday.

It remained unclear how the 85-year-old supreme leader would react, given that former President Barack Obama kept his messages to Khamenei secret before starting negotiations that led to Tehran's 2015 deal with world powers.

Trump said on Friday that "something will happen with Iran very soon," expressing his hope for a peace agreement that would prevent Tehran from possessing a nuclear weapon.

Trump added in remarks he made at the White House that the United States is "in the last moments" of negotiations with Iran, and that he hopes military intervention will not be necessary.

Trump continued, saying: "We have a situation with Iran, something is going to happen very, very soon... You'll be talking about that soon, I think."

He expressed his hope for reaching a peace agreement, saying: “I am not speaking from a position of strength or weakness, I am just saying that I would rather see a peace agreement than the other option, but the other option will solve the problem,” without further clarifying what he meant by the other option.

Trump had said (earlier in an interview with Fox Business that aired Friday) that he wanted to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran and that he had sent a letter to the Iranian leadership on Wednesday proposing talks with Tehran, which the West fears is rapidly approaching the ability to make nuclear weapons.

"I think they want to get that message across. The other alternative is that we do something, because we cannot allow another nuclear weapon," he continued.

Asked whether he had sent the message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump replied, "Yes."

"There are two ways to deal with Iran: militarily or make a deal," Trump said. "I prefer to make a deal because I'm not looking to hurt Iran. They're a great people."

Last month, Trump reimposed a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, including efforts to cut off its oil exports to zero. But he also said in February that he wanted to strike a deal with Iran that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.