Netanyahu Pledges Continued Strikes on Iran as Tehran Rejects Negotiations
By Anwar Usman
The President of the United States on Monday held “very good” talks with an unidentified Iranian official after abruptly shelving plans for fresh attacks, even as Washington’s ally Israel vowed to keep up strikes on the Islamic republic.
The surprise disclosure denied by Tehran, which accused Trump of manipulating energy markets came ahead of a Monday night deadline imposed by Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane or see the US “obliterate” its power plants.
Ghalibaf said on X that “no negotiations” were underway, insisting Trump was seeking “to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”
Oil prices fell and stock markets jumped as observers scrambled to interpret Trump’s statements despite the Iranian denial.
AFP reports that, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said messages were received from “some friendly countries indicating a US request for negotiations aimed at ending the war”, but denied any such talks had taken place, Iran’s official IRNA agency reported.
In response, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken to Trump and acknowledged the US thought a deal was possible, but vowed to continue striking Iran and Lebanon to protect Israel.
“Trump believes there is a chance to leverage the tremendous achievements of the IDF and the US military in order to realize the war’s objectives in an agreement — an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests,” he said.
“At the same time, we continue to strike both in Iran and in Lebanon.”
Although Oman mediated indirect US-Iran talks prior to the US and Israel launching the war, Egypt, Qatar and Pakistan have been suggested as alternative go-betweens.
On a day of whiplash developments, Iran’s neighbors breathed a sigh of relief after Trump stepped back from his threat to target Iranian power infrastructure.
Tehran had vowed to deploy naval mines and target power and water infrastructure across the region in retaliation, threatening to escalate an energy crisis of already historic proportions.
“Trump blinked first — out of a clear understanding that striking Iran’s energy infrastructure would trigger a direct and significant retaliation,” Danny Citrinowicz, a security analyst and former Israeli intelligence Iran expert, wrote on X.
Trump said his administration was holding talks with an unidentified “top person,” but not the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to be injured.
“We’ve wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we’re dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader,” Trump said.
He described the individual as “very reasonable,” while warning if talks failed in the next five days, “we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”
Thousands of US Marines are headed to the Middle East, reinforcing America’s presence amid weekend speculation Trump was mulling ground operations either to seize Iranian oil assets or to forcibly reopen the Strait of Hormuz.