Donald Trump is not looking to destabilize the country, Matthew Whitaker has said

The US does not want a Libya-style collapse in Iran as it weighs possible military action against the country, Washington's ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, has stated.

Libya remains divided and unstable more than a decade after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, leaving rival administrations competing for power.

In recent weeks, Washington has dispatched what US President Donald Trump described as a "beautiful armada" to the Middle East, led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, to pressure Tehran into accepting a new nuclear deal.

Whitaker told Fox News on Saturday that Trump "has been very clear on Iran, and that is that you can't have a nuclear weapon and you need to stop killing protesters in your streets."

The US buildup is "a show of strength, but it also is an off ramp for Iran," which can "deescalate very easily" by agreeing to Washington's terms, he added.

"President Trump has given them an ultimatum. Obviously, he does not want to see this spit out of control. We don't want to destabilize a country like Iran the way Libya was by the [Barack] Obama administration when Gaddafi was taken out and there was no plan for the day after that," the envoy explained.

Because of this, Washington will "be judicious in how we use our power" against Iran, Whitaker stressed.

Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and that it has no plans to develop a bomb. The Iranian authorities also announced in mid-January that they were able to restore calm after a wave of violent protests, which they claimed had been instigated by the US and Israel with a goal of a regime change.

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, said that progress was being made toward negotiations with Washington.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also urged dialogue between the sides, warning that "any forceful actions can only create chaos in the region and lead to very dangerous consequences."