TEHRAN, March 23 (Xinhua) — The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday denied having negotiations with the United States, the country’s official IRNA news agency reported, reversing U.S. President Donald Trump’s earlier claim that Washington had reached “major points of agreement” with Iran and is in contact with “a top person.”
Friendly countries recently sent messages to Iran indicating Washington’s desire to begin talks on ending the war, but Iran has not responded, the IRNA reported, citing Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei.
Baghaei said Tehran’s stance on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as its conditions to end the war, have not changed, the IRNA reported.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also denied the claim on social media platform X, saying “no negotiations have been held” with Washington.
Meanwhile, several media reports quoted Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, as saying that talks with the United States are meaningless in the current conditions.
Earlier in the day, Trump said he had ordered a five-day delay of planned strikes on Iranian power plants and energy facilities, citing what he described as “very good and productive conversations” over the past two days aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East.
Reuters, citing Israel officials, later reported that the United States is holding negotiations with Ghalibaf, and that the two sides could hold talks in Pakistan’s Islamabad as early as this week.
The developments came amid heightened regional tensions following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting on Feb. 28, to which Iran and its regional allies responded with attacks on Israeli and U.S. interests across the Middle East. ■
