United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday rubbished reports of a halt in communication between the US and Iran as “false and erroneous”, adding that talks were ongoing “continuously” as the two negotiate over details of a peace deal.
In a post on Truth Social, he said: “Fake news reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the USA, stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous. The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today. Where they lead, one never knows.”
Earlier, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported, citing an informed source that exchanges of messages between Iran and the US related to efforts to reach a preliminary memorandum of understanding had been halted for at least several days now.
The source said recent media reports and statements by some Western officials portraying communications between Tehran and Washington as routine “do not reflect the current reality.”
According to the source, message exchanges between the two sides regarding what was described as an initial memorandum of understanding had been suspended for several days now.
The Iranian source said the latest message from Iran to Washington was a “public message” concerning Lebanon that received broad international attention.
Separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Iran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear programme, expressing hope that ongoing talks could help secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department’s budget request, Rubio said: “We are in talks … There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that for the first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear programme.”
He said the US hopes such negotiations could lead to a broader understanding that would include the reopening of the strategic waterway.
Asked whether sanctions relief had been discussed in exchange for reopening the strait, Rubio replied: “No, that hasn’t been discussed.”
“Any sanctions relief is condition-based, which means it has to be in return for the reason why those sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear programme,” Rubio said.
Separately, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the readiness of the country’s armed forces today “is more than in the past”, claiming Tehran would use “different” types of weapons in case of a renewed war with the US and Israel.
Meanwhile, Pakistan, along with seven other Muslim countries, on Tuesday condemned the “continued incursions by extremist Israeli settlers into Al Aqsa Mosque” in the strongest terms, calling for an immediate cessation of all such provocative practices.
According to a joint statement released by the Foreign Office (FO), the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Turkiye, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates condemned “in the strongest terms the continued incursions by extremist Israeli settlers, into Al Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the Israeli forces, as well as the raising of the Israeli flag within its courtyards”.