President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States is talking to "respected" Iranian leaders and said the Islamic Republic is ready for a deal to end the war, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the key Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, world agencies added. The extension gives Iran five more days, BTA reported.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman denied on Monday that any talks with the United States had taken place in the past 24 days, shortly after President Donald Trump said the two sides had reached "significant points of agreement," Reuters reported.
In recent days, friendly countries have brokered messages from the United States to Iran offering talks to end the conflict, but Iran has yet to respond. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported, citing a ministry spokesman.
The speaker of Iran's parliament also denied that any negotiations with the United States had taken place, the Associated Press reported.
Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf wrote on the social network “Ex“ that “no negotiations with the United States had taken place, and fake news is being used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and to get out of the quagmire in which the United States and Israel are mired“.
His publication today comes after US President Donald Trump said that Iran was willing to reach a deal and that US officials were holding talks with “respected“ Iranian leader.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is positioning itself as a leading mediator trying to help end the US-Israeli war against Iran, the Financial Times reported today, quoted by Reuters, BTA writes.
Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir spoke with Donald Trump on Sunday, the newspaper reported, citing two sources familiar with the conversation.
Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the information.
The agency added that the US had requested a meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on Saturday, citing a senior Iranian official, without specifying a proposed venue.
The source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said that the Supreme National Security Council had not yet made a decision on the possible negotiations.
Trump's shift in stance, which offered hope of a resolution to the conflict, now in its fourth week, sent oil prices lower and rattled markets again. It also offered a reprieve after the United States and Iran traded threats over the weekend with potentially catastrophic consequences for civilians across the region.
Trump told reporters that Iran "wants to make a deal" and noted that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had held talks with an Iranian leader on Sunday. He did not specify who represented Iran, but said the U.S. had not spoken to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
The U.S. president said that if a deal is reached, the U.S. would take action to seize Iran's enriched uranium, which is crucial to Tehran's controversial nuclear program. Iran has in the past strongly rejected such demands, insisting it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
Iranian state media quoted Iranian officials as denying any such talks were taking place, and said Trump backed down "after Iran's firm warning." Turkey and Egypt, meanwhile, said they had held talks with the warring parties, the first sign of coordinated mediation by powerful regional powers.
The war has already seen several dramatic turning points - the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, the bombing of a key Iranian gas field and strikes targeting oil and gas facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Gulf Arab states, the AP said. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices soaring and threatened some of the world's busiest air corridors.
The latest threats of attacks could cut power to millions of people in Iran and the Persian Gulf region and disable seawater desalination plants that provide drinking water to many countries in the region. There are also growing concerns about the consequences of possible strikes on nuclear facilities.
Trump said over the weekend that the United States would "destroy" Iran's power plants unless the country opens up the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes, within 48 hours. The deadline expires late Monday, Washington time.
In extending the deadline by five days, Trump said the extension "depends on the success of the ongoing meetings and negotiations." In Tehran, the state-run Iran newspaper reported that the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied that any negotiations had taken place.
"The US president's statements are part of efforts to lower energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans," the newspaper noted.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he had spoken by phone with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been a mediator in past negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry today refused to comment on whether the country had passed messages between Iran and the United States. However, on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held phone calls with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, as well as with colleagues from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and the European Union. Turkish officials also said he had spoken with U.S. officials as part of efforts to end the war, without providing further details.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo had delivered "clear messages" to Iran focused on de-escalating the conflict, his office said. Egypt says it has stepped up efforts to de-escalate the war in the Middle East. Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it had been making "continuous efforts and maintaining communication" in recent days with all parties to the conflict.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards have vowed retaliation if Trump carries out his threat, saying Iran will strike power plants in all areas that supply electricity to US bases, "as well as economic, industrial and energy infrastructure in which Americans have a stake."
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region as legitimate targets, including seawater desalination facilities that are crucial for drinking water in the Persian Gulf countries.
The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates' nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran fired missiles aimed at the Israeli city of Dimona, near a facility that is key to its long-suspected nuclear weapons program. The Israeli facility was not damaged, the AP reported.
Following Trump's shift in stance, the Fars and Tasnim news agencies portrayed the US president as backing down in the conflict.
"Since the start of the war, some intermediaries have sent messages to Tehran, but Iran's clear response has been that it will continue its defense until the necessary level of deterrence is achieved," the Tasnim publication said. "With this kind of psychological warfare, neither the Strait of Hormuz will return to its pre-war state, nor will calm return to the energy markets."
After the US deployed more landing ships and additional marines to the Middle East, Iran's Defense Council warned against any ground attack, saying it "would result in mining all access routes".
Trump said he had no plans to send ground forces to Iran, but did not rule out such a possibility. Israel has hinted that its ground forces could take part in the war.
Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz has wreaked havoc on energy markets and sent food and other commodity prices soaring far beyond the Middle East, the AP said.
"No country will be spared the consequences of this crisis if it continues in this direction," said Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
Oil prices held high in early trading on Monday but fell after Trump's statement.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior U.N. official, said the world had already seen a domino effect, including "an exponential rise in oil, fuel and gas prices" that had a profound impact on millions of people, mostly in developing countries. countries in Asia and Africa.
"There is no military solution," he said.
Israel launched new attacks on the Iranian capital on Monday, saying it had "launched a large-scale wave of strikes" against infrastructure targets in Tehran, without immediately giving details. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It was not immediately clear what had been hit.
The United Arab Emirates said it was trying to intercept new Iranian shelling this afternoon.
Israel is also battling the Iran-aligned militant group "Hezbollah" in Lebanon, with the group firing hundreds of rockets at Israel.
In recent days, Israel has struck many residential buildings in Beirut and bombed bridges over the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the strikes on the bridges as a "prelude to a ground invasion", while Egypt condemned the strikes as "collective punishment" of civilians for the actions of "Hezbollah".
The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) said today that a building at its headquarters in the coastal city of Naqoura was hit by a shell that the force believes was "fired by a non-state actor", an apparent reference to "Hezbollah", the AP notes.
Fighting has been taking place at many points along the border between "Hezbollah" and the Israeli army. The UNIFIL statement said that "over the past 48 hours, peacekeepers have recorded intense gunfire and explosions" in the Naqoura area and "bullets, fragments and shrapnel hit buildings and open areas in our headquarters".
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.
The death toll in Iran has surpassed 1,500, the country's health ministry said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 US soldiers have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.