President Donald Trump said that the United States is not in talks with Iran after the two nations' memorandum of understanding expired with little signs of progress in ending the six-month war. "There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social. "The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect.
The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated." The comment appeared to contradict the president's adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who told Fox News on Monday that the U.S. and Iran "continue to have communications. He said Trump was waiting to "make the right deal when the right deal is ready, but we are having very positive and active conversations" with Iran.
Trump said the same day that Iranian officials "want to make a deal," though "they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary." Mixed messaging has long dominated the fragile diplomacy surrounding efforts to end the conflict launched by the U.S. and Israeli against Iran on February 28, with Washington often claiming breakthroughs and Tehran frequently downplaying or even denying active negotiations. Sina Azodi, assistant professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, told Newsweek that the latest inconsistency served as evidence "that the U.S. currently does not have a strategy, and this is why the messaging is not coherent." Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment. The U.S. and Iran were engaged in discussions regarding the latter's nuclear program when the war was launched, putting diplomacy on hold.
The first confirmation of new communication came with a ceasefire reached in April, followed by intensified interactions that ultimately produced a memorandum of understanding signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on June 17. The agreed-to framework was broad but ultimately aimed at pausing hostilities for 60 days until a more comprehensive deal could be reached. Instead, both sides quarreled over the terms of their understanding almost immediately, with new clashes erupting after three tankers came under attack while transiting what Iranian officials described to be an unauthorized route.
While the two sides have yet to return to the scale of conflict in the earlier stages of the war, Iran has sought to maintain dominance over the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. has returned to a policy of blockading the passage of vessels destined to and departing from Iranian ports as a form of economic pressure. Diplomacy did resurface, however, in the form of a bilateral track between Iran and Oman, a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member whose Musandam Peninsula exclave bordering the United Arab Emirates' territory lies directly across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran's southern shores. Muscat, which has traditionally enjoyed close ties with both Washington and Tehran, reportedly proposed a deal that would see the establishment of a voluntary toll system, mirroring mechanisms in place in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore Strait.
Trump continued to claim that the U.S. was involved in the talks, though Iran denied this, eliciting frustration from the U.S. leader. On Monday, Trump told Fox News that he would order strikes again Oman "if it gets in the way" of the U.S. controlling the Strait of Hormuz while also alleging a direct backchannel to Iran's influential Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Trump's latest comments indicating that no talks were taking place, however, appear to align with Iran's own messaging. IRGC spokesperson Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi told Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency on Monday that "there is no ongoing dialogue between IRGC officials and the Americans, and this lie by Trump is merely a fantasy that he has suffered from due to the illusions and nightmares caused by defeat and despair in the war." Azodi also felt that Trump's remarks appeared "not compatible with the reality on the ground." "It is likely that Jared Kushner is in contact with Omanis who are negotiating with Iranians to open the Strait," Azodi said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
