massive strikes<\/a>\u201d on Iran.<\/p>\nHe did not provide any details about where the talks would be taking place or who would participate.<\/p>\n
When reporters asked the US president if there was a deadline for an agreement with Iran, he declined to answer.<\/p>\n
Instead, he responded: \u201cWould I rather make a deal? I\u2019m not looking to kill people because people die, a lot of people die, and we don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump again said an attack that the US had planned against Iran would have been the \u201cbiggest attack since World War II\u201d but he had decided to call it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the deal is imminent, having to do with the Hormuz Strait and ultimately the denuclearisation of Iran,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Are negotiations taking place, and who is taking part?<\/p>\n
Reporting from the Qatari capital, Doha, on Monday, Al Jazeera\u2019s Osama Bin Javaid said that just before Trump\u2019s announcement, an unnamed source had hinted that mediators were ready to fly to Tehran, where an indirect negotiation session would be held.<\/p>\n
Bin Javaid added that the talks would likely first focus on ongoing discussions between Iran and Oman for a deal on control of the critical Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
He reported: \u201cThere are going to be intermediaries. We\u2019re hearing from our sources that the Pakistani interior minister and especially the Qataris are going to be sending emissaries so that this can take place as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know the specific details, but we do know something is in the making,\u201d he reported.<\/p>\n
On Monday, however, Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said: \u201cWe are not going to host a delegation or be guests of a country during these days.\u201d It was unclear if the spokesman was referring to direct talks only, meaning that indirect talks via mediators could go ahead.<\/p>\n
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi said: \u201cIndeed, Iran is talking to the Omanis. They are saying that all these talks are focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and on finding measures and trajectories to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is [conducting the talks] in a bilateral way, denying any potential foreign intervention in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is a peace deal really \u2018imminent\u2019?<\/p>\n
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Trump\u2019s repeated escalations and then cancellations of attacks on Iran have harmed prospects for a negotiated settlement to the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this has become somewhat of a tiresome pattern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, all credibility for negotiations is going to be lost. The credibility of actually sticking to a deal is questionable. The credibility of any incentives that are offered is questionable. And obviously, the credibility of the threats is degraded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alan Eyre, a distinguished diplomatic fellow with the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera the only important talks taking place right now are those between Iran and Oman about the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
He explained that Iran has decided it is not worth talking directly to the US because it \u201ccan\u2019t count on anything the US says\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing has changed. President Trump has promised to annihilate Iran five or six times and then backs down at the last minute. I think it\u2019s highly doubtful there are talks, that he\u2019s reaching an agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue or the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d Eyre said.<\/p>\n
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said while he believes a deal on the Strait of Hormuz is achievable, a fuller peace agreement on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and other issues remains far more elusive.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I think that there may be a framework for opening the Strait of Hormuz? Maybe, could be. Do I think that there\u2019s an actual agreement on the nuclear issue? Absolutely not. That is far off in the distance, if at all achievable,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Is a deal on the Strait of Hormuz close?<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations between Tehran and Oman on the future management of the Strait of Hormuz were in their \u201cfinal stages\u201d, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.<\/p>\n
The critical waterway, through which one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies were shipped before the US-Israel war on Iran began, has become the most urgent issue on the agenda for talks with the US.<\/p>\n
It was essentially closed by Iran in early March after the US and Israel began their air strikes on February 28. Iran allowed few ships to pass through the strait until it signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on June 17.<\/p>\n
However, the vague wording of that agreement triggered a dispute over which routes ships should take, and Iran attacked several ships that were following an Oman-approved route through the southern part of the waterway. The strait was then closed again last week, and the US restarted its naval blockade on Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
Last week, Oman presented a proposal backed by other Gulf countries for the future management of the strait to Iran, which rejected it and made counterproposals.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s state media reported on Sunday that Araghchi had spoken by phone with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, and Pakistan\u2019s military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to discuss diplomacy to resolve the crisis.<\/p>\n
Baghaei said negotiations would be about agreeing on a new route through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Baghaei added that Tehran has been holding talks with Oman \u201cfor the past seven to eight days\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome progress has been achieved,\u201d he said, adding that talks with officials from the region and outside the region are being held as well.<\/p>\n
Why did Trump pause strikes on Iran, and will fighting resume?<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump told reporters he called off major attacks on Iran on Friday at the request of \u201cthe three primary groups\u201d \u2013 Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates \u2013 which had urged him to hold off and pursue a deal instead.<\/p>\n
\u2060Oil \u2060prices fell by more than $4 a barrel after Trump called off his planned attacks on \u200cIran\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Brent crude futures slid $4.08, or 4.64 percent, to $83.85 per barrel late on Sunday while West Texas intermediate crude was at $80.66 a barrel, down $4.01, or 4.74 percent, according to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
However, US officials have made it clear they are still prepared to launch more attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeated Trump\u2019s claim that the Pentagon was ready to attack Iran at \u201clevels not seen since World War II\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that the US remains \u201clocked and loaded\u201d in an X post on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that an agreement with Iran is imminent and new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6901,2490,2542,43,5575,12241,44,92719,1354,84,41,39,42,40,1055,6075,262188],"class_list":["post-842113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-conflict","tag-donald-trump","tag-explainer","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-oman","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}