Trump says talks with Iran under way but Tehran denies any planned

President Donald Trump said on Monday that talks with Iran were under way, warning that it was a “last chance” for Tehran to sign a good deal to end the five-month-old war, but Iran denied that any negotiations were being held or planned. The contradictory statements suggest there is little prospect for a diplomatic resolution to the war anytime soon. “They are going on right now,” Trump told reporters at an Oval Office event when asked about the state of negotiations, saying the sides were talking at the request of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, among others.

“This is a last chance for them (Iran) to sign a good document,” he said. Trump’s comments followed his decision this weekend to call off what he said would be “massive attacks” he had authorized on Iran, saying talks were to be held, repeating a pattern in which he has vowed major strikes only to cancel them. Earlier on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said no negotiations with the United States were taking place and no meetings were scheduled.

Iran had no plans to host foreign delegations or send negotiators abroad in the coming days, he said. Baghaei added that all Iranian negotiators were currently in the country, apart from Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was on a religious pilgrimage in Iraq. The only talks under way, he said, were discussions with Oman over management of the Strait of Hormuz.

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A senior Iranian source also told Reuters that no talks were planned and that Araqchi would be unavailable at least until the end of the week. Gulf officials and analysts say Iran is betting it can outlast Washington by turning the Middle East’s trade routes, shipping lanes and energy infrastructure into pressure points that steadily raise the cost of confrontation, hoping to convince the United States and its allies that containing the crisis is more costly than accommodating Iran’s demands over the Strait of Hormuz. “Their big advantage is that they can hurt the regional states and the global economy,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute.

In a post on Truth Social later on Monday, Trump called Iran’s leadership “unbelievably duplicitous,” saying they had asked for a meeting and more talks were scheduled for the “immediate future.” He also repeated his assertion that the U.S. Navy had total control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the conflict.

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