An official statement from the White House has confirmed US President Donald Trump is "still considering" whether to honour the refugee resettlement deal with Australia struck under his predecessor Barack Obama.
But in a further sign of the mixed messages coming out of Washington, a statement concurrently published by the ABC from the US State Department suggested the agreement would proceed "out of respect" for Australia.
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Confusion continues over refugee deal
Australian politicians say the deal to resettle refugees in the US is on track, but President Donald Trump seems to still be deciding. Courtesy ABC.
It also comes as an extraordinary report from The Washington Post claims Mr Trump told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a phone call that the refugee deal was "the worst deal ever" and that "I don't want these people".
"The President is still considering whether or not he will move forward with this deal at this time," said a written statement from the White House provided to the ABC. "He is considering doing it because of the long and good relationship we have with Australia."
The backtrack came after White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday told reporters at a daily media briefing Mr Trump would honour the deal and accept 1250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru, subject to an "extreme vetting" process.
The Australian government has pointed to Mr Spicer's public remarks as evidence the Trump administration will stick to the agreement.
Less than an hour before the White House statement was published by the ABC, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Sydney: "I would like some clarification as to what you think the confusion is. I'm not dealing with unofficial calls from unnamed people. I'm dealing with the official representations and statements from the White House."
The latest White House statement would appear to undercut assurances Mr Trump apparently gave Mr Turnbull during a phone call at the weekend. At a press conference on Monday, Mr Turnbull thanked the president "for his commitment to honour that existing agreement".
However, the Washington Post report has credited Mr Trump with deliberately leaving wiggle room by saying it was "my intention" to honour the agreement.
In a further sign of the confusion emanating from Washington in the first whirlwind fortnight of the Trump administration, a statement from the US State Department also published by the ABC on Thursday contradicted the White House statement and said the agreement would be honoured.
"Out of respect for close ties to our Australian ally and friend, we will honour the agreement to accept some refugees from resettlement centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea," the statement said.
The confusion has already taken its toll on refugees in Australia's offshore processing facilities. One man awaiting resettlement from Manus Island, Imran Mohammad, told Fairfax Media this week: "We have always been concerned about the deal and we still are. We have been told too many things, yet we are still stuck behind the same fence without any clear view of our future."
Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton accused the "hate media" of trying to scuttle the US resettlement deal to embarrass the government.
"The most frustrating thing out of this is you've got people in Fairfax Media, the ABC, other hate media outlets like The Guardian who are willing this deal to fail," he told Fairfax Radio Network's 2GB radio.
"They want to see the government suffer politically and they're happy to do that at the expense of those people they claim to represent and they claim to care for.
"I want to get people off [Manus Island and Nauru] as quickly as possible and it seems to me that some of the hate media journalists on the left wing of this debate in this country are adamant that they want to use these people as pawns – and I think it's an outrage."