WASHINGTON(RAHNUMA): US President Donald Trump said on Monday that talks with Iran were ongoing, despite a report that Tehran had suspended indirect negotiations with the United States to end hostilities.
“Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Iranian state news agency Tasnim reported earlier that Tehran was halting indirect negotiations with the US after Israel ordered troops to push deeper into Lebanon.
In telephone interviews with news outlets after that report, Trump said he had not been told that Iran was suspending talks with Washington.
“They haven’t informed us of that,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
Trump said that silence between the two sides would be fine and he was willing to wait.
“I think we’ve been talking too much if you want to know the truth. I think going silent would be very good, and that could be for a long time,” he told NBC.
A suspension in negotiations would not mean the US would start bombing Iran, Trump told the network, adding that the US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.
In a separate interview with CNBC, Trump had said he did not mind if the talks were over.
“I don’t care if they’re over, honestly … I couldn’t care less,” CNBC quoted him as saying.
Shortly after those media interviews were reported, Trump issued his social media post saying talks with Iran were continuing.
Halted talks
Tasnim had earlier said the Islamic Republic’s negotiating team was stopping exchanging messages with Washington through mediators over attacks on Lebanon, where the US-Israeli war against Iran has reignited Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah.
The move posed a further obstacle to hopes of a swift end to the crisis, after Iran said it had attacked a US air base following weekend US strikes on Iranian military targets that put further strain on a fragile ceasefire.
Oil prices rose more than $5 a barrel after the Tasnim report.
Trump had earlier reiterated on social media that he believed Tehran wants to reach a deal. But hopes of a breakthrough were tempered by comments by Iranian officials criticizing the “constantly changing” US negotiating stance.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also raised Lebanon, where another ceasefire is in place, as a stumbling block.
“Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” he said on X.
‘New fronts’
The war launched by the US and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. It has also caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global supply route for oil and liquefied natural gas.
Tasnim said Iran and the Resistance Front, which includes its Shiite allies in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, had set an agenda to completely block the strait and activate other fronts, including the Bab El Mandeb Strait, to “punish” Israel and its supporters.
If the Houthis, Iran’s allies in Yemen, open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab El Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen, a shipping chokepoint and narrow passageway that controls sea traffic toward the Suez Canal.
Referring to Iran’s demands on Lebanon, Tasnim said “there will be no talks until Iran and the resistance’s views on this matter are met.”
Iran and the US have sporadically traded blows despite their ceasefire, which has been in place since early April, while Pakistan has been trying to mediate a durable peace agreement.
The US military said it had at the weekend struck Iranian air defenses, a ground control station and two drones that were threatening ships after “aggressive Iranian actions,” including shooting down a US drone over international waters.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an air base used by the US in response to an attack on southern Iran.
It did not identify the base, but Kuwait activated air defenses on Monday and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said were undermining efforts to reduce tensions in the region.
US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the US military said on Monday, adding that no American personnel were harmed.
