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US President Donald Trump on Monday said he had held “productive conversations” with Tehran and has postponed military strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days.
In a marked shift in tone with the war well into its fourth week, he claimed there are now major points of agreement with Iran after talks proceeded late into the evening on Sunday with two senior US envoys.
“We’ll see where they lead,” Mr Trump told reporters at an airport in West Palm Beach. “They went, I would say, perfectly".
But Tehran quickly pushed back on Mr Trump's remarks, denying it had been holding talks with the US.
Iran's parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said "no negotiations have been held" with the US and dismissed claims of talks being held as "fake news ... used to manipulate the financial and oil markets, and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped".
Mr Trump said envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were involved in the discussions but he was vague about who the US was talking to beyond specifying it was a “respected” figure who is not the supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
“They want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too,” Mr Trump said. Additional phone calls would be followed by an in-person meeting “very, very soon”, he added.
He added that the sides had reached about 15 points of agreement and that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen if a deal is reached, and suggested the vital waterway could be jointly controlled.
“They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon – that’s number one, two and three,” Mr Trump said. “We are in the throes of a real possibility of making a deal.”
He said a potential agreement would benefit not only Iran but also regional allies including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. He said Israel “will be very happy”.
“This will be peace for Israel, long-term peace, guaranteed peace if this happens," he said.
Unnamed Iranian sources, however, denied having any direct or indirect contact with Mr Trump in reports carried by state media, clouding the prospect of peace.
In Tehran, an “Iranian source” told Press TV there had been “no contact – whether direct or indirect – with Trump”, claiming “he backed down after being warned their [Iran's] targets would include power plants across West Asia”.
A senior security official told the semi-official Tasnim news agency there had been "no negotiations and there are none, and with this kind of psychological warfare neither the Strait of Hormuz will return to its prewar conditions, nor will there be peace in the energy markets”.
Mr Trump's announcements came first on Truth Social. “I am pleased to report that the United States of America and the country of Iran have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” Mr Trump wrote on Monday.
“Based on the tenor and tone of these in-depth, detailed and constructive conversations, which will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”
On Saturday, he had given a 48-hour ultimatum for Iran to “fully open” the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants. Tehran has pledged to retaliate if such attacks are carried out.
Political analyst Trita Parsi said there is little evidence that the Trump administration held talks with Iranian officials. Mr Trump may have been sending messages to Tehran, but it is unlikely he has received a response.
“Trump has no good escalatory options. Whatever he does will likely be more costly for him than for the Iranians,” Mr Parsi said. “This creates a scenario in which he has to bluff his way into some sense of leverage.”
For Iran, the risk is that it could “overplay its hand” by staying on its current path for too long instead of pivoting towards negotiations.
In response to Mr Trump's ultimatum, Iran threatened to plant sea mines in all routes in the Gulf and to target power infrastructure in Israel and plants supplying US bases with electricity.
Iranian forces have also blocked the strait and fired on ships and tankers trying to pass through it, in an attempt to put pressure on the global economy and halt US-Israeli strikes. The closure has already had severe consequences for global oil prices and other commodities, while leaving countries such as Iraq struggling to export crude.
Shortly after Mr Trump's announcement, the Israeli air force launched a wave of strikes on Tehran, the army said, attacking “Iranian regime infrastructure sites”.
Meanwhile, Oman, the main mediator between Iran and the US, warned of more severe economic problems if the conflict that has killed hundreds in Iran and elsewhere in the region continues.
“Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi wrote on X. “This is already causing widespread economic problems and I fear they promise to get much worse if the war continues. Oman is working intensively to put in place safe passage arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz.”
