Donald Trump stated this Monday, August 3, that the talks are already underway, that they were opened at the request of Iran and that they are the "last opportunity" to sign an agreement. "I want to give them every last chance before the beheading," he said. But the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, has denied that there are ongoing or planned meetings and maintains that the only open dialogue is with Oman.

First modification: 08/03/2026 - 23:46 Last modification: 08/04/2026 - 05:32

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, assured this Monday, August 3, that negotiations with Iran are already underway and warned that this is the "last opportunity" that Tehran has to sign an agreement to end a war that has been going on for more than five months.

A few hours earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had publicly denied that there was any contact with Washington.

"They are underway right now," the president responded to journalists in the Oval Office when asked about the status of the talks. According to his story, the dialogue was opened at the request of Iran and with the intervention of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, among other countries.

"This is the last chance for me to sign a good document," he insisted. And he added that, if that does not happen, there will be no more instances.

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Trump outlined a two-stage process that he estimated could begin in a day or two.

"The first phase is the opening of the strait. The second phase will be denuclearization, and that will take some time," he explained. On that last point he did not allow room for negotiation: Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

Read alsoTrump announces talks with Iran as expectations for Hormuz rise

Tehran denies there are negotiations

The denial came from the Iranian Foreign Ministry itself. Its spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, declared that there are no ongoing negotiations with the United States or scheduled meetings and that his country does not plan to receive foreign delegations or send negotiators abroad in the coming days.

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He specified that the entire negotiating team remains in Iranian territory, with the exception of Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is in Iraq carrying out a religious pilgrimage. The only open talks, he maintained, are with Oman and are limited to the management of transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

A senior Iranian source consulted by Reuters agreed that there are no meetings planned and added that Araqchi will not be available until at least the end of the week.

The contradiction irritated the American president, who already in the morning had described the Iranian leaders as "incredibly hypocritical" on his Truth Social network. There he maintained that Tehran requested the meeting, that the talks began and that more are scheduled for the immediate future, despite the fact that its officials deny it in public.

"Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, the truth is that we are talking," he later told reporters.

A canceled attack and a repeating pattern

Trump acknowledged on Sunday that there was a plan ready to carry out what he defined as "the largest attack since World War II" and that he decided to discard it to give more time to diplomatic channels. He attributed the shift to requests from Gulf leaders — including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — and also from Iranian officials he did not identify.

It is a movement that has been repeated since Washington and Israel began the attacks on February 28: the president announces a military escalation and then suspends it by invoking diplomatic contacts. Asked how the Americans interpret that sequence, he responded that their delay is out of consideration for Iranian lives.

"I want to give them every last chance before the beheading," he said.

For his critics, the hesitation reveals something deeper. "What we're seeing is a president with a pretty erratic approach," Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a member of the Armed Services Committee, said on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

Kelly added that Trump seems to want to go back to the pre-February situation and that if he had a button to reset everything, he would press it.

Read alsoWhat we know about the Hamas disarmament agreement announced by Donald Trump

Hormuz, the crux of the conflict

The Strait of Hormuz remains the main focus of dispute. The United States maintains that the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17 — which sank in early July — obliged Iran to reopen that sea route, while Tehran argues that the text explicitly preserved its authority over the traffic.

If the Iranian interpretation is confirmed, the country would be left with more control over the step than before the war, a result that would be read as a setback for the White House.

Before the conflict, about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas circulated through this corridor. Washington has so far failed to force its reopening, which has pushed up international crude oil prices and, with them, the value of gasoline in the United States, a politically sensitive issue just a few months before the legislative elections in November.

This Monday, after the announcement that there would be no immediate military action, Brent futures fell around 5%, to around $83.52 per barrel.

The tension in the area does not stop. The British maritime safety body UKMTO reported that the captain of a ship reported an explosion in the water near the vessel during the night of Sunday. There were no injuries.

Five months after the start of the offensive, Trump still has not achieved the objectives he set for himself: dismantling Iran's nuclear program, cutting its ability to attack regional rivals and creating the conditions for the population to overthrow the clerical leadership.

With EFE, Reuters and AP

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