U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed reports that ceasefire talks with Iran had broken down as "fake news," saying the dialogue is continuing. Iran also reported that it is reviewing a revised proposal to send to Washington. While signs are emerging that the United States has no intention of striking Iran again ahead of the World Cup and the November midterm elections, Washington maintains a hardline position that sanctions can only be eased if there is progress on the nuclear issue.
"The Fake News reports a few days ago that Iran and the United States had stopped talking are false and incorrect," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday local time. "Our talks have continued, four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and even today." He added, "Nobody knows how the talks will turn out, but as I told the Iranian side, it is now time for you to make a deal one way or the other." Apparently referring to Iran's hostile policies toward the United States and Israel, he stressed, "You have been doing this for 47 years, and we cannot allow you to continue doing it any longer!" Iran's Mehr News Agency, citing a source on the negotiation team with the United States, reported that "the final text of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) is still under discussion in Tehran, and a response has not yet been sent."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who appeared at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing the same day, said Iran "has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program," calling it "an issue that Iran had not even mentioned, let alone entered into discussions on." Rubio argued that the U.S. war against Iran prompted Tehran to signal a willingness to discuss its nuclear program.
Rubio emphasized the justification for the war, saying Iran is a more serious threat than North Korea and that the war was launched to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. "If Iran obtains nuclear weapons, they could very well use them," he said, citing the fact that Iran's decision-making system is a theocracy. Rubio said that had the United States not preemptively struck Iran, Tehran would have been judged to be on the verge of actually possessing nuclear weapons, which would have meant Iran becoming "like North Korea, or worse," adding, "because they have more money than (North Korea)."
On the prospects for negotiations, Rubio said, "We have a chance to succeed in the negotiations. It could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week." However, he also said "the war is over," suggesting Washington has no intention of attacking Iran further. Trump also said in an NBC News interview on Monday, "Just because the talks have stopped doesn't mean we're going to start dropping bombs over there." With a "dead cross" emerging in which approval of Trump's job performance among his core base of "non-college-educated whites" has fallen below disapproval, the political cost of carrying out further military operations that would push up oil prices has become substantial for the president.
However, Rubio flatly denied any prospect of sanctions relief as an inducement, saying when asked whether the United States is willing to offer sanctions relief as a carrot to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, "There has been no such discussion, and it has never been proposed." He stressed that the sanctions were imposed because of Iran's nuclear program, and that any easing must come in exchange for resolving the nuclear issue. Iran, on the other hand, has taken the position that the immediate release of $12 billion in frozen overseas assets is a condition for signing a 60-day ceasefire MOU, and that the nuclear issue can be discussed afterward.
