President Donald Trump said yesterday that the US is in talks with Iran to end the war, and indicated that the two sides had held “very good and productive talks“, which will continue throughout this week, writes the American newspaper “Washington Post“.
This was the first admission by the president of high-level negotiations between the two countries since the US and Israel began carrying out devastating strikes on Iran, which caused a global energy shortage that led to widespread economic difficulties, the publication notes.
The Trump administration is trying to deal with the deepening problem by first lifting sanctions on Russian oil and then on Iranian – a solution that would provide revenue from the sale of energy to Tehran and thus directly finance its military efforts, the newspaper said.
Iranian officials have publicly denied that any negotiations to end the war are taking place, and American officials have specified that the contacts are at a very early stage and are not substantial, the “New York Times“ writes in turn.
However, Trump took advantage of these beginnings of dialogue to refuse to carry out the threat he made on Saturday that he would attack Iranian power plants if Iran did not immediately open the Strait of Hormuz, the publication commented. Iran had vowed not to capitulate, and the 48-hour deadline Trump had given was set to expire yesterday, the American newspaper notes.
The US president said he would extend the deadline until Friday to give time for negotiations to continue, but it is still unclear how seriously the White House really takes the potential for a diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict, the “New York Times“ indicates.
The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, denied that negotiations were taking place and accused Trump of spreading “fake news,... used to manipulate the financial and oil markets“, writes the British newspaper “Telegraph“.
Trump also said yesterday that there would be “a very serious form of regime change“ in Iran and that it would be “jointly controlled“ by “me and the Ayatollah… whoever the next ayatollah is, the publication points out.
It was not clear whether the American president was hinting that he would directly participate in the governance of Iran, who exactly the new Iranian leader could be and what role the Gulf states would play in this, commented the “Telegraph“.
Meanwhile, about 40 minutes after Trump said that he had extended the deadline for striking Iranian power plants by five days and called the negotiations with Tehran “productive“, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had launched “another wave of strikes targeting the infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime in Tehran“, another British newspaper - “The Guardian“ emphasized.
The IDF said that they would continue their operations in accordance with the instructions of the Israeli government until they receive new orders, although they added that energy infrastructure would be spared. This suggests that Israel may yet follow Washington in halting strikes on Iranian power plants and related facilities, the publication said.
Israel has not recently threatened to strike such facilities, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that attacks on Iran and the "infrastructure it relies on" would be significantly stepped up, the Guardian reported.