United States President Donald Trump said he had positive conversations with Iran about ending the war and has postponed U.S. strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. and Iran have had “very good and productive” conversations over the past two days.
“BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS,” he said.
Shortly after making the post, Trump told CNBC that “we are very intent on making a deal with Iran”.
However, Iran has denied such talks have taken place.
According to Iranian state media, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Qalibaf said "no talks with the U.S. have taken place; reports claiming otherwise are fake news aimed at influencing financial and oil markets and distracting from the challenges facing the U.S. and Israel."
Despite this, Trump doubled down and said that the U.S. and Iran “have had very, very strong talks” yielding “major points of agreement,” including that Tehran will “never have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump said if the five-day halt in strikes goes well, the parties could end up settling this.”
“Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out,” he said.
This comes after Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran if the country didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz.
Around 20% of the world’s oil travels through the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping traffic has virtually ground to a halt since the war started on 28 February.
The Iran war has stoked global inflation fears and created what the International Energy Agency calls the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market.
At the time of writing, oil prices have dropped nearly 10% to US$89.35 per barrel.
