Iran denies any current talks with US, contradicting Trump

Washington and Tehran can't even agree on whether they're talking to each other, let alone on what a deal would look like.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that Iran is not currently holding any talks with the United States, directly at odds with Donald Trump's statement the same day that negotiations would begin that afternoon.

Baghaei said Tehran's only active discussions are with Oman, focused on establishing a temporary safe route through the Strait of Hormuz, not with Washington.

US-Iran conflict

According to Baghaei, even if a deal is reached between Iran and Oman regarding the management of the transit process in the strait, it will not be sufficient to open the strait because he associated any improvement in the situation with the cessation of what he termed as "the US aggression".

In a press briefing to the reporters who were returning from New Jersey, Trump mentioned that the negotiations will begin on Monday, but he did not mention any location or list of people participating in the process and also refused to set a deadline for concluding the negotiations.

Previously, on Truth Social, he stated that the countries of the Middle East, including Iran, requested him for time in order to finalise their agreement about the re-opening of the strait.

Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz, a route that carried roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas before the war began in late February, pushing energy prices and inflation higher worldwide.

Oil prices fell more than 4% Monday morning regardless, suggesting markets are pricing in some chance of progress even as the two governments' public statements pull in opposite directions.