Iran and the United States are in “active” negotiations over a deal to end the war, President Donald Trump said at a news conference Monday, a week after he asserted that “great progress” had been made in “serious discussions.”
“They would like to be able to make a deal,” Trump said, while repeating his threat to “bomb the hell” out of Iranian bridges and power infrastructure if Tehran doesn’t capitulate by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Iran on Monday reasserted its rejection of U.S. demands — including ending its nuclear enrichment program, turning over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, curtailing its ballistic missile program and opening the Strait of Hormuz — and said the war would continue until its own demands are met.
In response to reports that Washington has proposed a temporary 45-day truce, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran would not settle for any ceasefire unless it was a permanent, guaranteed end to the war.
A list of Iranian demands published by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency also included the lifting of U.S. sanctions and payment of war reparations, and “establishing protocols” for navigation through the strait.
Iran has acknowledged that messages have been sent through intermediaries but says there have been no direct contacts or substantive negotiations. A regional official familiar with the messages, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive diplomacy, said there was no common ground between the U.S. and Iranian lists.
Among the problems in getting negotiations off the ground, the official said, are Israeli strikes that have killed successive rounds of Iranian leaders and that internal communications among those trying to avoid the same fate are spotty because of the bombing and an internal internet shutdown. Any Iranian response, the official said, was taking at least 24 to 36 hours.
Trump alluded to those difficulties Monday, saying that U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who was present at the news conference, told him “the biggest problem we have in our negotiation is that they can’t communicate. … We’re communicating like they used to communicate 2,000 years ago, with children bringing a note back and forth.”
It is unclear whether prewar methods of communications with Tehran — including conversations between the U.S. and Iranian missions to the United Nations and text messages between Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — have been activated.
Trump offered fulsome praise for the unnamed “different people” he said the U.S. now was dealing with after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and more than a dozen military and intelligence leaders were killed in Israeli airstrikes. While some of those who have come to the forefront, including Khamenei’s son Mojtaba and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, are widely considered more hard-line, Trump described Iran’s emerging leadership as “smarter. I think they’re sharper and far less radical.”
“If we do something and they assume control, I think it’s very positive, a big step,” Trump said. “I don’t think you’d see the radicalization that you have seen.”
In addition to Witkoff, he said Vice President JD Vance, who is headed this week to Hungary, was also involved in negotiations. “I think it’s going to be fine,” Trump said. “But we’ll have to see.”
More than a week ago, Trump said that Iran had agreed to many of his demands, communicated through Pakistan, which has offered its services as a mediator along with Egypt and Turkey. He said he was in direct contact with Ghalibaf, who he said gave him the “gift” of allowing eight Pakistan-flagged oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Ghalibaf has denied any communications with Trump.
But the regional official said that it was the Americans who had asked for the eight ships to be sent through the strait, flying Pakistani flags as a predetermined “signal” from Iranian leadership showing that they were actually in charge.
Earlier Monday, Trump said “if I had my choice,” he would “take” Iran’s oil, comparing the situation to Venezuela, where the U.S. has taken control of the oil industry following the military capture of strongman Nicolás Maduro.
At the news conference he called the rest of Maduro’s government, who are still in charge there, as “very good people. … We’re very happy with the president-elect,” he said, referring to Maduro’s vice president.
“The people of Venezuela, they say, if I ran for president of Venezuela, I’m polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela,” Trump said.
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