Iran War Day 157: Iran Denies Negotiations with U.S.

Iranian officials denied President Donald Trump’s claim that negotiations to end the Iran War would occur Monday, but said that negotiations with Oman over management over the Strait of Hormuz have made progress.

Trump said Sunday evening, “We’re talking to [Iran] in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon.” He said that he had cancelled planned attacks because of this development.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denied that any new negotiations between the U.S. and Iran were underway, saying that “at present, we are not having any negotiations with the US.” Talks with Oman are ongoing, he said, and are “focused on reaching an understanding on a route for the safe passage of shipping to resume through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran said that the negotiations with Oman would lead to the creation of a “new route” that would be different from those used before. Iran’s Foreign Ministry labeled the southern Omani route—which Iran accused Muscat of opening under pressure from the U.S. and CENTCOM— as “unsafe and harmful to our security and national interests.”

Baghaei was careful to separate the outcome of talks with Oman from the question of whether the Strait will reopen. “As long as the [U.S.] naval blockade of Iran is declared, as long as America’s military aggression against Iran and its interests continues, and as long as all the things that America has violated during this period continue, there will be no significant change in the situation in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

Trump’s remarks, though quickly denied by Iran, brought some relief to oil markets Monday, with Brent Crude falling five percent, below $84 per barrel. Iran’s subsequent denial that negotiations existed, the Financial Times notes, “did not prompt any significant move in the oil price.” 

In a Truth Social post directed at the CEO of Chevron Mike Wirth and “other Oil Companies,” Trump on Monday told the industry to “get your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!” AAA recorded the national average price of regular gas at $4.10. 

Despite the administration’s apparent pivot toward diplomacy, CNN reported Monday, citing anonymous sources, that U.S. Central Command’s intelligence branch asked military analysts via email to develop what it called “creative and unconventional” ways to “pressure and punish Iran.”