ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran has held no negotiations with the United States since the outbreak of the Middle East war in late February, Tehran’s foreign ministry reiterated on Monday. The remarks came hours after US President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s critical oil and energy assets if Tehran doesn’t agree to a deal to end the war soon.
Iranian foreign ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters at a press briefing that “over these past 31 days,” since the start of the US-Israeli joint military campaign against Iran on February 28, “We have had no negotiations with the United States.”
He added that “what has occurred is that a request for negotiations from the US, along with a set of proposals, has been conveyed to us through intermediaries, including Pakistan.
“Our position is very clear: as US military aggression and attacks continue intensely, all our efforts and capabilities are focused on defending Iran’s sovereignty,” Baghaei said.
The remarks came shortly after Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that his country “is in serious discussions with a new, and more reasonable, regime” to end its military operations in Iran, adding that “great progress has been made.”
Trump further warned that “if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘open for business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).”
Late last week, the American president said he had extended a deadline for the “destruction” of Iran’s energy infrastructure by an additional ten days, “per [the] Iranian government’s request,” to allow more time for talks with Tehran to proceed, adding that they were “going very well.”
In a seeming response to Trump’s remarks, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Baghaei, noted on Monday that Tehran “will not forget the betrayal of diplomacy that occurred twice” with Washington, adding that Iran “knows well how to subdue its enemies to its own will.”
Interestingly, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday stated that Trump had always estimated that the operation in Iran would take “four to six weeks.”
“We're on day 30 today [Monday], so again, you do the math," she told reporters, adding that the US president “wants to see a deal over the next 10 days.”
The US and Israel on February 28 launched a coordinated military campaign against Iran, with US Central Command (CENTCOM) reporting on Saturday that more than 11,000 targets across Iran have been struck so far.
In response, Tehran has carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets in the region - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
Speaking at the same cabinet meeting on Friday, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff - who has been tasked with engaging with the Iranian side along with the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner - made the first public confirmation that “a 15-point action list forming the framework for a peace deal” has been presented to Iran “through the Pakistani government acting as mediator.”
According to Witkoff, the US conditions required Iran to accept zero uranium enrichment, eliminate any weaponization capability, decommission the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities, transfer all enriched material to the US, stop stockpiling and reduce its missile inventory and range.
However, the Pentagon recently confirmed that the USS Boxer and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), comprising around 2,500 Marines, were en route to the region.
Reuters on Monday cited two US officials as confirming that thousands of soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division had started arriving in the Middle East.
If talks with Iran fail, the US would have significantly more boots on the water to execute operations on Iranian territory like the rumored blockade or seizure of Kharg Island - a 22 square kilometer outcrop that processes roughly 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.