President Donald Trump said Sunday that US-Iran negotiations would restart Monday afternoon after he again held off on a threatened round of strikes against Tehran, five months into the war that began Feb. 28.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, according to The Week, Trump said the coming talks would cover both the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the denuclearization of Iran. “We’ll see how it goes,” Trump said. He credited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates with urging him to pursue a diplomatic path rather than the large-scale strike US officials had been preparing.
The president had said Saturday that the planned operation against Iran would have been the largest since World War II. On social media, Trump described the emerging framework as calling for the “Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT” alongside an end to Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian officials offered a different account Monday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters that Tehran’s only active negotiations are with Oman over a temporary, safe shipping route through the strait, not with the US. “We are not negotiating with the United States at this time,” Baghaei said. He added that the Strait of Hormuz “will in no way return to the status it was before February 28,” the day the war began.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the talks with Oman are in their “final stages.” The strait normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil supply; traffic has slowed to a trickle since fighting began, and oil prices dropped Monday on signs of a possible breakthrough, with West Texas Intermediate futures falling nearly 6% to $79.66 a barrel.
The war, sometimes called the Third Gulf War, began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iranian military and government sites, including the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to reports compiled by Al Jazeera’s live coverage. More than 3,600 Iranians and 18 US service members have been killed since the fighting began.
