Trump Disputes Media Reports Iran Negotiations Were Cut Off

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that reports indicating an end to diplomatic negotiations between Iran and the United States are “false and erroneous,” adding that talks between the two nations are ongoing.

On Monday, Iranian state-run media reported that Tehran pulled out of negotiations with the United States to end an armed conflict that started in February, citing recent military actions taken by Israel against Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah over the past weekend.

“Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., 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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“One never knows” where the talks can lead, the president said. “But as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer,'” he added.

Other than saying that talks are still in progress, Trump did not provide details about what is being discussed between the two parties.

Fars and Tasnim, two semi-official Iranian news agencies, reported earlier that Iran had stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington on June 2. Instead, he sounded an optimistic note about the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, while cautioning that there’s no guarantee of reaching “a deal that’s acceptable.”

“They have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention,” Rubio said, adding that negotiations have been made difficult by the instability of Iran’s leadership.

Over the past few months, Iran has effectively closed off commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies and driving up prices worldwide. The UK military on Monday said a cargo ship was hit by a projectile, causing an explosion, in the strait near Iraq.

The U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Monday that it carried out the strikes in Iran during the past weekend around the city of Geruk and on Qeshm Island, hitting air defenses, a ground control station, and downing two attack drones.

The strikes were launched “in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” CENTCOM wrote.