President Donald Trump said his two primary negotiators in dealing with Iran met with representatives from the Islamic Republic on Sunday night, hours before he postponed U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure.
Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke with their Iranian counterparts, Trump confirmed to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, who relayed the information to her audience Monday morning.
Trump’s comments came shortly after Iranian state media reported that there were no “direct or indirect” talks with his administration.
The president said he did not know what the state-run media outlets were talking about and suggested they did not know the latest information, according to Bartiromo.
“It’s hard to get any information there because the U.S. is blowing up so much of their infrastructure,” he told the Fox Business host.
Trump paused the strikes on Iran’s energy facilities for a five-day period, two days after he threatened to strike them over the country’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran denies that it has fully closed the strait, and it has granted exceptions to some cargo ships to navigate it during the war.
Trump hopes to make a deal sometime in the next five days before resuming strikes if no resolution is reached. He said Iran wants to make a deal “badly,” Bartiromo recounted from her conversation.
Despite Iranian officials’ statements to the contrary, the peace talks remain ongoing.
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his most recent conversation with Witkoff happened before Trump launched Operation Epic Fury late last month.
“My last contact with Mr. Witkoff was prior to his employer’s decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran,” Araghchi wrote on March 16. “Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public.”
His office on Monday denied any renewed negotiations with the United States and said Trump’s remarks are “part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plan,” according to an Iranian state-owned newspaper.
“While there have been initiatives by regional countries to de-escalate tensions, Iran’s response has been clear: It did not start the war and all such requests should be directed to Washington,” the newspaper reads.
Immediately after Trump’s announcement on the postponed strikes, the U.S. stock market skyrocketed and global oil prices plummeted.
While the U.S. is holding out on attacking Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure for now, the Israeli military said it started striking “Iranian terror regime targets” in Tehran, Iran’s capital.
Speaking later with reporters on Monday before boarding Air Force One, Trump disputed the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s denial of any talks.
“Well, they’re going to have to get themselves better public relations people,” he said. “We have had very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. Mr. Witkoff and Kushner had them. They went, I would say, perfectly.”
When asked who Witkoff was speaking to in Iran, Trump said a “top” person, though he said no conversations have been held between the U.S. negotiators and supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The U.S. doesn’t know if he’s alive or not.
“We have not heard from the son,” Trump said of the new supreme leader, who succeeded his now-deceased father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Every once in a while, you’ll see a statement made. But we don’t know if he’s living.”
TRUMP POSTPONES STRIKES ON IRANIAN POWER PLANTS FOR FIVE DAYS AMID PEACE TALKS
The president also revealed the U.S. military would have led a substantial strike on Iran’s power plants on Tuesday morning. The strike has been called off due to the peace talks.
“We were expected to blow up their largest electric-generating plants that cost over $10 billion to build,” he added. “One shot. It’s gone. It collapses. Why would they want that? So they called. I didn’t call. They called. They want to make a deal, and we are very willing to make a deal.”
