ฤฐrfan Simsar / Pexels / Pexels licence
Iran said no talks with the United States were taking place after President Donald Trump said negotiations were underway or progressing.
Iran has publicly denied that current talks with the United States over the Strait of Hormuz were taking place, contradicting statements from President Donald Trump that negotiations were underway or making progress.
There was no independent confirmation establishing whether the United States and Iran were engaged in direct or indirect negotiations over the waterway. The conflicting accounts came as reports also differed over a maritime incident in or near the strait.
Channel News Asia reported that Trump said talks were underway and warned of a “last chance” for Tehran to sign what he called a good deal. Iran denied that negotiations were being held or planned, according to the outlet.
The New York Times described Trump’s account differently, reporting that he cited progress in negotiations when canceling a threatened attack on Iran over the weekend. Iran said there were no current talks with the United States, the newspaper reported.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Iran said there were no talks with the United States over the Strait of Hormuz. The newspaper separately reported that Iran was continuing discussions with Oman about managing traffic through the passage. None of the other supplied reports independently confirmed those discussions with Oman.
The Times of Israel reported that Iran said there were no talks with the United States and no plans to resume them. It also reported that an Iranian official said the situation in the waterway would remain unchanged and that the strait would stay closed. That claim about the strait remaining closed appeared only in The Times of Israel among the supplied reports.
The status of any negotiations therefore remained disputed. Trump’s statements, as reported by Channel News Asia and The New York Times, indicated that talks were underway or progressing. Iran’s statements, as reported by those outlets, The Wall Street Journal and The Times of Israel, rejected the existence of current talks.
Reports of a maritime incident also varied. An Associated Press headline carried through Google News said a cargo ship reported being struck in the Strait of Hormuz. Channel News Asia likewise referred in its headline to a ship being struck in Hormuz.
The Times of Israel instead reported that a tanker off Oman had reported nearby blasts. The available summaries do not establish whether the reported ship strike and the nearby blasts referred to the same incident. They also provide no consistent account across independent reports of what happened.
The Google News item carrying The New York Times report duplicates the newspaper’s account and does not provide independent confirmation.
The disagreement over the talks and the differing descriptions of the maritime incident remained unresolved. No independent confirmation in the supplied reports established whether negotiations were actually occurring, and the circumstances surrounding the reported incident were not yet clear.
Sources
- Associated Press (via Google News) — Cargo ship reports being struck in Strait of Hormuz as US, Iran claims about talks diverge…
- Channel News Asia — Status of US-Iran talks uncertain as ship struck in Hormuz
- New York Times – World — Iran Says No Current Talks With U.S. After Trump Cites Progress on the Strait of Hormuz
- Wall Street Journal – World — Iran Says No Talks With the U.S. on Hormuz Strait
- The Times of Israel — Rebuffing Trump, Iran insists no talks with US over Hormuz, strait staying closed