United States President Donald Trump has described Iran’s leadership as “unbelievably duplicitous”, saying Tehran asked for talks to end the war and then announced that no discussions were being held.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, Trump claimed that Iran had backtracked, saying “they’re only dealing with ‘Oman.’ They then go on to give their usual blather in saying, the Strait of Hormuz will be operated powerfully by them”.
Trump also warned that the US will continue to blockade Iran’s southern ports until Washington and Tehran agree to a deal to end the war, which began in February.
Describing the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as a “Wall of Steel”, Trump said, “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished”.
New talks to wind down the war had been expected to start on Monday, after Trump announced over the weekend that the US would not go ahead with another massive bombing campaign he had threatened to unleash on Iran.
Trump said a plan had been in place for US forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II”, but he decided to give diplomacy more time after hearing from key Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as unnamed Iranian officials on Sunday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran was pursuing multiple diplomatic tracks and that it was not currently holding direct negotiations with the United States.
Iran was holding talks with “Oman, regional countries and countries outside the region in order to decrease the tension”, said ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei.
He said the focus of Oman was on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the channel.
“As long as the maritime siege and US actions continue, nothing significant will change in the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.
On Monday, Iran’s trade minister headed to Pakistan for talks focused in part on ways to ease transit bottlenecks and move more Iranian containers through Pakistani ports during the US naval blockade.
Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Atabak was scheduled to attend a meeting of the Iran-Pakistan Joint Trade Committee in Islamabad and to meet with Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
In June, the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, a Pakistan-brokered deal aimed at ending the conflict and reviving stalled shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.
Since then, the US has struck Iran, while Iranian forces retaliated by targeting US military assets in the region and insisting on control of the Strait of Hormuz.
