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President Donald Trump is warning Iran that it has one last chance to make a deal, even as Tehran denies the negotiations Trump says persuaded him to hold off on a major U.S. attack.
The clash has left the status of the diplomatic effort unclear. Trump says indirect talks could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and eventually address Iran's nuclear program, while Tehran acknowledges only limited discussions with Oman and has not publicly embraced the broader deal Trump has described.
"There's certainly an element of posturing involved," Ali Vaez, deputy program director for the Middle East at International Crisis Group, told Fox News Digital. "While there are no 'talks' in the sense of U.S. and Iranian officials sitting at the same venue exchanging proposals and counter-offers, engagement appears ongoing."
Trump said diplomacy persuaded him to call off a planned attack on Iran that he described as the biggest since World War II. Over the weekend, he said Iran and several Middle Eastern countries had asked for more time to finalize an agreement reopening Hormuz and addressing Tehran's nuclear program.
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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said, however, that Tehran was neither holding talks with the United States nor expecting an American delegation. He described the Oman discussions as a bilateral effort to establish a temporary shipping corridor through the Strait.
Trump, in response, accused Iran's leadership of being "unbelievably duplicitous."
"They ask for a meeting, some would say 'beg,' talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they're not having any discussions," Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
Later that afternoon, Trump called the talks Iran's "last chance" to avoid an escalation in U.S. strikes. He said negotiators would first seek to reopen the Strait, then turn to Tehran's nuclear program.
"The first phase is the opening of the straits. The second phase will be the denuclearization," Trump said in the Oval Office. "And that will take a little while."
Trump said reporters could learn more about the negotiations "today or tomorrow." Iran has not publicly endorsed either phase of his plan.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies have urged Trump to hold off on the planned attack, fearing more Iranian reprisals against their territory. Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said those concerns have complicated Trump's next move.
"He'd like to be able to walk away with a win. The Iranians are not allowing him to do that," Schanzer told Fox News Digital. "There is not a clear path ahead for him at this moment."
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A June memorandum also opened with promises of a broader settlement. The United States and Iran signed it to halt fighting, lift the U.S. blockade and reopen the Strait.
Shipping became the first test of the June memorandum, and it quickly exposed how far apart Washington and Tehran remained. Each side had its own plan for restoring commercial traffic through the Strait. When U.S. officials accused Iran of firing on commercial vessels days later, American strikes followed. Tehran said Washington had tried to force through a new shipping arrangement without its consent.
Negotiators never bridged that divide. Trump declared the ceasefire over in early July and expanded the U.S. air campaign. Iran answered with missile and drone attacks on American positions and regional partners.
That fighting set up another, shorter pause at the end of the month. Trump said mediators had asked the U.S. to hold fire, an arrangement Iran said it would match. Within days, Iranian missiles targeted U.S. forces in Jordan and the conflict spread again.
Brief breaks have become a feature of the conflict, which Schanzer described as a "ceasefire war."
"It is a war that is punctuated by short bouts of calm, only to see conflict return," Schanzer said.
Even if Oman succeeds in opening a temporary route, it would settle only the immediate question of how ships move through the Strait. Trump wants that step to lead into negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, a sequence Tehran has yet to publicly embrace. As long as Iran can still threaten traffic and Washington can maintain its blockade and prepare further strikes, each side may decide it can wait the other out rather than make the concessions needed to end the war.
"Fundamentally, both sides know that the status quo is a recipe for continued military and economic attrition without a clear endgame," Vaez said.
