Agency
DUBAI: US President Donald Trump on Monday said the US was talking with a “respected” Iranian leader and claimed the Islamic Republic was eager for a deal to end the war. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, saying it has an additional five days.
Trump’s turnaround, which held out the possibility of resolving the war now in its fourth week, served to drive down oil prices and jolt stocks. It offered a reprieve after the US and Iran traded threats over the weekend with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.
Trump told reporters that Iran wants “to make a deal,” and claimed US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had held talks with an Iranian leader on Sunday. He did not say who was representing Iran, but said the US has not talked to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Trump said if a deal is reached, the US would move to take Iran’s enriched uranium, which is critical to its disputed nuclear program. Iran has adamantly refused such demands in the past, insisting it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Turkiye and Egypt, meanwhile, said they had spoken to the warring parties, the first sign of coordinated mediation from the regional heavyweights.
Iran’s parliament speaker denied there have been any negotiations with the United States. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X that “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”
The war has already seen several dramatic turning points — the killing 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 nations. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging, and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors.
The latest threatened attacks could have cut electricity to millions of people in Iran and around the Gulf, and knocked out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water. There are also increasing concerns about the consequences of any strikes on nuclear facilities.
Trump issued a deadline and then extended it
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Trump said over the weekend that the US would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes, within 48 hours — a deadline that would have expired late Monday Washington time.
In extending the deadline by five days, Trump said the suspension was “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.” In Tehran, the state-owned IRAN newspaper reported that Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied there had been any talks.
“Remarks by the US president are part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans,” the newspaper said.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkiye has been an intermediary in past talks between Tehran and Washington.
Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment Monday on whether the country had relayed messages between Iran and the US On Sunday, however, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held telephone calls with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi as well as counterparts from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and the European Union. Turkish officials also said he spoke with US officials as part of efforts to end the war, without providing further details.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, meanwhile, said Cairo has delivered “clear messages” to Iran focusing on de-escalating the conflict, according to his office. Egypt says it has intensified its efforts to de-escalate the war in the Middle East. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said it was making “constant efforts and communications” with all parties in recent days.
Iran threatened retaliation
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Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had promised retaliation if Trump made good on his threat, saying Iran would hit power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”
Qalibaf, the parliament speaker, had earlier said Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region to be legitimate targets, including desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles targeting the city of Dimona in Israel, near a facility key to its long-suspected atomic weapons program. The Israeli facility wasn’t damaged.
In the wake of Trump’s turnaround, Fars and the Tasnim news agencies portrayed the American president as backing down.
“Since the start of the war, messages have been sent to Tehran by some mediators, but Iran’s clear response has been that it will continue its defence until the required level of deterrence is achieved,” Tasnim’s report said. “With this kind of psychological warfare, neither the Strait of Hormuz will return to prewar conditions nor will calm return to energy markets.”
With the US deploying more amphibious assault ships and additional Marines to the Middle East, Iran’s Defence Council warned against any ground attack, saying it would “lead to the mining of all access routes.”
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out. Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.
Oil prices have soared but dropped after Trump’s announcement
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Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz has wreaked havoc on energy markets and pushed up prices of food and other goods well beyond the Middle East.
“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” said Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
Oil prices were stubbornly high in early trading on Monday, but plunged after Trump’s announcement.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior United Nations official, said the world has already seen a ripple effect, including “exponential price hikes in oil, fuel and gas” that have had a far-reaching impact on millions, primarily in Asian and African developing countries.
“There is no military solution,” he said.
Israel strikes Tehran and Lebanon
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Israel launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit.
The United Arab Emirates said it was attempting to intercept new incoming Iranian fire on Monday afternoon.
Israel is also battling the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, while the group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
In recent days, Israel has hit many apartment buildings in Beirut and bombed bridges over the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the targeting of bridges “a prelude to a ground invasion,” while Egypt denounced the strikes as the “collective punishment” of civilians for the actions of Hezbollah.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Monday that a building at its headquarters in the coastal town of Naqoura was struck by a projectile, which the force believes “was fired by a non-state actor,” an apparent reference to Hezbollah.
There have been battles between Hezbollah and Israeli forces at multiple points along the border. 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 have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million. Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 US military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians, in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states. (PTI)