Live updates: Trump says ultimatum for Iran to reopen Strait of Hormuz postponed amid negotiations

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denied any direct negotiations with US officials, but said “friendly countries” had conveyed messages from Washington seeking negotiations.

“In recent days, messages were delivered through certain friendly countries indicating that the United States was seeking negotiations to end the war. These messages were appropriately addressed in accordance with our country’s principled positions,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei told the country’s state news agency IRNA on Monday. “In our responses, we issued strong warnings about the serious consequences of any attack on Iran’s critical infrastructure, emphasizing that any action against Iran’s energy facilities would receive a decisive, immediate and effective response from our armed forces.”

President Trump told reporters on Monday that there had been direct communications with an unnamed “senior” Iranian official, and claimed that it was Iran that made the initial approach.

Multiple Israeli and international media outlets, citing anonymous sources, identified the interlocutor in Tehran as the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. The Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying that the White House had proposed a direct meeting between Qalibaf and US officials on Saturday, but that Tehran had not yet responded.

Baqaei denied any direct negotiations between Tehran and US officials since the US and Israel launched their attacks on February 28, and said Iran’s position regarding the Strait of Hormuz and the conditions for ending the war remained unchanged.

China urged all parties involved in the Iran war, but particularly the United States and Israel, to stop military operations on Monday.

“Whoever tied the bell must be the one who unties it,” China’s Middle East special envoy Zhai Jun told reporters in a briefing after visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in recent days.

Separately, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian warned that the ongoing military action would only contribute to a “vicious circle” and said the war should not have started in the first place.

“If hostilities continue to spread and intensify, the entire region will be plunged into chaos,” he said, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 1,000 points on Monday after President Trump postponed an ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The blue-chip index jumped 1,076 points, or 2.4%, to 46,654. Other indexes also rose: The S&P 500 added 138 points, or 2.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index gained 2.4%.

Before Trump announced the delay on social media, futures had pointed to a nearly 1% drop in stocks.

Read more here.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a UK parliamentary committee on Monday that his government was aware of ongoing talks between the United States and Iran, as announced earlier that day by President Trump, and welcomed the dialogue.

“We were aware that this was happening and the immediate priority has to be a rapid resolution of the conflict,” Starmer said.

The Iranian regime is “fragmented” because of attacks on the country, so fragmented that its own Foreign Ministry “probably doesn’t know” who in the country is talking to its interlocutors or directly to the United States, said retired US Army Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, a News themezone contributor.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of these confusing reports because the Iranians are very fragmented in these attacks,” he said.

President Trump said Monday that the United States is talking to an “important person” in Iran, but that person is not the supreme leader. Trump refused to identify who the United States was speaking to, “because I don’t want him killed.”

“We’re dealing with the man who, I think, is the most respected and the leader,” Trump said. “It’s a bit difficult: we’ve eliminated everyone.”

President Trump said Monday that the United States is talking to Iran’s “most respected” person and “leader,” but not the supreme leader, Ayatollah Mokhtaba Khamenei.

“An important person,” the president told reporters on the tarmac at West Palm Beach International Airport. “Don’t forget, we’ve eliminated phase one, phase two and, to a large extent, phase three. But we’re dealing with the man who, I think, is the most respected and the leader. It’s a little difficult: we’ve eliminated everyone.”

The president was asked if he was referring to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

“No, not the supreme leader,” he said.

The president said he can’t name the person the United States is talking to “because I don’t want him to be killed.”

Trump said “we haven’t heard anything” from Mojtaba Khamenei, although he did not name him, referring to him only as “the son” and “the second supreme leader.”

“We don’t know if he’s alive,” Trump said.

Egypt says it has been holding “intensive talks with all interested parties” in an effort to prevent the conflict in the region from worsening.

“Egypt continues its efforts, in cooperation with regional and international partners, to reduce tensions and calls for taking advantage of US President Donald Trump’s latest initiative to prioritize dialogue,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Egypt condemned Iran’s attacks against the Gulf States and Jordan, and warned of the “serious consequences of the current escalation on regional security and stability, as well as its economic and trade repercussions affecting the region and the world as a whole.”

The US State Department says it is arranging buses for Americans to travel from Israel to the international airport in Amman, Jordan, starting Monday.

The service is being offered as Israel is limiting the number of flights departing Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport to a maximum of one per hour with 50 passengers, starting Monday night.

Interested citizens were asked in a security alert to fill out an online form. The State Department said it will send passengers details about the departure date and time and that buses will be scheduled. They will depart from the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas.

“The security situation in Israel continues to make travel out of the country difficult, and the US government is working with commercial airlines and the government of Israel,” he said.

The embassy said the quickest option to leave Israel is to take a land route like those available to Egypt and Jordan. From there, “commercial airline opportunities are readily available.”

“Americans seeking assistance on commercial flights should contact airlines directly,” it said.

President Trump said Monday that Iran and the United States will talk “today” and will likely meet in person soon. If the talks don’t go well, he said, “we’ll keep bombing our little hearts.”

“We’re going to meet today, probably by phone because it’s very difficult to find a country, I guess it’s very difficult for them to leave,” Trump told reporters at Palm Beach International Airport. “But at some point very, very soon we’ll get together. We’re in a five-day period. We’ll see how it goes. And if it goes well, we’ll end up figuring this out. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts.”

Disputing reports on Iranian state television that talks with the United States are not taking place, President Trump insisted Monday morning that talks with Iran are going “perfectly.”

“We’ve had very, very intense conversations,” Trump told reporters at the airport in Palm Beach, Florida. “We will see where they take us. We have points, important points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement. Maybe that has not been conveyed. Communication, as you know, has exploded into pieces.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday he was “grateful” to US President Donald Trump for delaying previously threatened attacks on Iranian power plants.

“I expressed my concern to him about the announced attacks on power plants in Iran,” Merz said at a news conference in Berlin about their phone call the previous day. “I’m grateful that he said today that he will postpone them another five days.”

Iranian state media on Monday quoted the country’s Foreign Ministry as calling President Trump’s sudden decision to abandon his ultimatum for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as “part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time for the implementation of its military plans.”

Referring to Trump’s claim that there are ongoing negotiations with Tehran, which he suggested in a social media post could lead to a resolution of the entire conflict, the ministry said there have been multiple and ongoing “initiatives by countries in the region to reduce tensions, and our response to all of them is clear: we are not the party that started this war, and all such requests must be referred to Washington.”

Speaking Monday morning to News and other media outlets, Trump insisted that there had been negotiations as recently as Sunday night involving his top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, although he did not say who they had spoken to.

Stocks look set to rise in early trading Monday after President Trump postponed his ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Ormu z, saying the United States is engaged in “good and productive” negotiations with Tehran.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were pointing to gains of 1.6% in Monday morning trading. Before Trump announced the delay on social media, futures pointed to a drop of almost 1%.

Oil prices also fell immediately: Brent crude, the international benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, both fell 6.2%.

Trump had set a Monday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, threatening to “destroy” Iran’s power plants if it did not relent. Iran responded by threatening to attack US and Israeli energy and infrastructure throughout the Middle East.

On Monday morning, Trump said the United States would delay attacks on Iranian power plants and other energy infrastructure for five days, apparently easing investor concerns that war with Iran could escalate and deepen the growing global energy crisis.

Read more here.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed claims that the country had attempted to attack the joint US-UK military base on the remote Indian island of Diego Garcia on Friday as Israeli “disinformation”.

Israel’s defense chief called Iran’s alleged attempt to attack the base, more than 2,000 miles from Iranian territory, as evidence that Tehran poses a threat not only to its neighbors but also to European capitals, as the missiles needed would have a significantly greater range than those it has been firing for more than three weeks at the Gulf states.

“These missiles are not intended to attack Israel. Their range extends to the capitals of Europe: Berlin, Paris and Rome are within direct threat range,” Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said late Saturday.

“They are putting everyone in their crosshairs,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, adding a call for other countries to heed President Trump’s “call for the international community to confront this terrorist and fanatical regime of fanatics.”

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei rejected the allegation, saying in a social media post that “even NATO Secretary General (who is infamously pressuring Alliance members to appease the US and support its illegal war against #Iran) refuses to endorse Israel’s latest disinformation, it says it all: the world has completely had enough of these tired and discredited ‘false flag’ stories.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte he said on News’ “Face the Nation with Marget Brennan” Sunday that the alliance “cannot confirm that at this time, so we are looking into it,” when asked about the alleged Iranian attack on Diego Garcia.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Monday that security forces had arrested “68 agents affiliated with royalist groups, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and spy networks across the country over the past few days.”

The reference to “monarchist groups” indicates the detention of people who Iran considers to support the country’s politics. Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlaviwho has been an outspoken critic of the regime since his father, the former US-backed shah, was overthrown amid the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s.

Pahlavi’s name was chanted by some protesters during massive nationwide anti-government protests that spread across Iran in January, and analysts have talked about him as a possible interim leader if the current Islamic Republic is overthrown, although the level of support within Iran for the royal family is difficult to gauge.

Iran’s national police announced the arrest of the 68 suspected spies, according to IRNA, which said they had been caught monitoring sites hit by American and Israeli missiles and transmitting videos from those locations “to hostile media outlets.”

Iran’s official Fars news agency said on Monday, citing an anonymous source, that the regime in Tehran was not involved in any direct negotiations with the United States or through intermediaries, contradicting President Trump’s claim of “deep, detailed and constructive talks, which [sic] It will continue throughout the week.”

Echoing an earlier statement by Iranian state television, Fars quoted its source as saying that Trump had “backed down” on his threat to bomb the country’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by Monday night due to Iran’s counterthreat to attack energy infrastructure across the Middle East.

Iran’s official state television network, IRIB, said on its official Telegram social media channel on Monday that President Trump had postponed his deadline for the Islamic Republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international maritime traffic “for fear of Iran’s response.”

“Trump has withdrawn his 48-hour ultimatum,” the network said, referring to the deadline Trump gave in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday night, demanding that Iran reopen the strait around 8 p.m. ET on Monday or warning that he would order strikes on the country’s power plants.

President Trump said in a message posted on his Truth Social platform early Monday that his ultimatum for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was being shelved for at least five days after “VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE TALKS ON A COMPLETE AND COMPLETE RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.”

He did not mention any agreement by Iran to ease its attacks in the region that have prevented oil tankers from transiting the strait for more than three weeks, nor did he give any indication that the vital sea route would soon reopen, but he said his threat on Saturday to attack Iran’s power plants was on hold.

“BASED ON THE TONE AND TONE OF THESE DEEP, DETAILED AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, THE WITCH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE WAR DEPARTMENT TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY ATTACKS AGAINST IRAN’S POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE-DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS,” Trump said, without elaborating.

Iran has not recognized any negotiations with the Trump administration, and its Security Council threatened on Monday to mine the entire Persian Gulf if the United States attacked its power plants.

The UAE’s air defenses intercepted seven Iranian ballistic missiles and 16 drones on Monday alone, the country’s Defense Ministry said, showing that while the United States and Israel insist the Islamic Republic’s offensive capabilities have been exhausted, it still has weapons and the ability to launch them against its neighbors.

The United Arab Emirates said it had intercepted a total of 352 Iranian ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,789 drones since the United States and Israel launched their war on February 28, prompting immediate attacks by Iran against US allies across the Persian Gulf.

The attacks have killed eight people in the United Arab Emirates, including two members of its armed forces, and wounded 161 others.

Iran’s National Defense Council warned on Monday that any new attack on its power plants would be met with corresponding “decisive and destructive retaliation” against energy infrastructure across the Middle East.

In a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, close to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the council also alluded to US threats to expand attacks against Kharg Island, home to vital Iranian oil infrastructureand the persistent threat of a possible US ground invasion as more troops head to the region.

“Any enemy attempt to attack the Iranian coasts or islands will naturally lead, following standard military procedures, to the deployment of various naval mines – including moored and drifting mines – on all access routes and lines of communication in the Persian Gulf.”

“In such a case, the entire Persian Gulf would effectively face a prolonged situation similar to that of the Strait of Hormuz, and the responsibility for this would fall on the aggressor,” the statement said, highlighting “the memory of more than 100 minesweepers that failed to clear a limited number of naval mines in the 1980s.”

“The only safe way for non-hostile countries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz is coordination with Iran,” he said.

The head of the US military’s Central Command says Iran is “operating in a sign of desperation” by attacking civilian sites in the war.

In an interview with the Farsi-language Iranian opposition satellite network Iran International that aired Monday morning, U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper said: “They are operating out of a sign of desperation… In the last two weeks, they have attacked civilian targets very deliberately, more than 300 times.”

Cooper noted a slowdown in Iranian incoming fire across the Middle East as the war entered its fourth week.

“At the beginning of the conflict, you were seeing huge volumes, in dozens of drones and missiles,” Cooper said. “You don’t see that anymore. It’s all one or two at a time.”

Cooper said the U.S. campaign against Iran was continuing “as planned,” targeting missile and drone manufacturing sites as well as other military infrastructure.

“So it’s not just about the current threat. We are eliminating the threat of the future, both in terms of drones, missiles and the navy,” he told Iran International.

Cooper said it was not yet time for the Iranian public to take to the streets, citing the current risks of joint attacks between the United States and Israel.

“They are launching missiles and drones from populated areas and for now it is necessary to stay inside,” Cooper said.

Both the Israeli and American governments They have expressed hope that the Iranian public will rise up and overthrow the Islamic theocracy that has ruled the country for nearly half a century, and Cooper said that “there will be a clear signal at some point, as the president has indicated, for you to come out.”

News/AP

After Iran threatened power plants across the Middle East, Iranian media outlets published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates nuclear power plant. The report by the semi-official Fars news agency, close to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, appeared to be an indirect threat to sites including desalination plants in the Middle East.

The list also included the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, which has four reactors in the country’s western deserts, near its border with Saudi Arabia.

The judiciary news agency Mizan also published the list.

The threat from Tehran puts both power and water supplies in the Gulf Arab states at risk, particularly as desert nations combine their power plants with desalination plants crucial for the supply of drinking water.

It was Iran’s response to President Trump’s 48-hour deadline for the Islamic Republic to allow ships to freely transit the Strait of Hormuz, which expires just before 8 p.m. Eastern time on Monday.

In an earlier statement broadcast by state media, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Monday a “decision that if the power pl” is attacked, Iran will retaliate by attacking the power plants of the occupying regime and the power plants of countries in the region that supply electricity to US bases, as well as economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which the Americans have shares.

“Do not doubt that we will do it,” the statement added.

News/AP

Earlier this week, President Trump said NATO is a “paper tiger without the United States,” but NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Sunday that he had “several conversations this week with the president.”

“The good news is, look, we had the United States for weeks planning [Operation] Epic Fury and for security reasons, they couldn’t share with European allies and allies around the world and partner countries what they were doing, because that would have jeopardized the effect of the first strike,” Rutte said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Rutte said it was “logical” that 22 nations, many of which belong to NATO, needed some time to “come together.” He said he has been on phone calls this week with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, helping lead “22 countries now joining this initiative.”

“Obviously, in a program that is broadcast around the world and there are many viewers, I cannot discuss with you what is discussed in secret, but I can assure you that of course the United Kingdom is at the forefront of this effort of the 22 countries under the leadership of Prime Minister Starmer,” Rutte said.

Watch Margaret Brennan’s full interview with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte here.

Iranian strikes hit two communities near Israel’s main nuclear research center on Saturday night, wounding nearly 200 people in the south of the country. It was the first time that Israel’s nuclear research center was attacked during the war launched by the United States and Israel three weeks earlier.

The attacks came hours after Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike, for which Israel’s military denied responsibility.

The Israeli military said it was unable to intercept Iranian missiles that hit the cities of Dimona and Arad on Saturday night, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the fact that no one was killed was “due to luck.”

“If you want proof that Iran is endangering the entire world, the last 48 hours have provided it,” Netanyahu told reporters at the site of the attack in Arad. “In the last 48 hours, Iran targeted a civilian area. They are doing it as a weapon of mass murder. Fortunately, no one died, but that is due to luck, not their intention. Their intention is to murder civilians.”

Netanyahu called on world leaders to join Israel and the United States in their war against Iran, saying he “can see some of them starting to move in that direction, but more is needed.” He said Israel and the United States were responding to Iran “with great force, but not against civilians.”

News/AP

When evaluating a war, Americans consider at least two important things: what the objectives are abroad and its impact at home.

Right now, Americans want many things to happen in Iran: most feel it is important to stop their nuclear programensure that the Iranian people are free and, now that the conflict is underway, that it would be unacceptable to abandon the iranian regime in power at the end of it.

But it is also important to end the conflict as quickly as possible, they say, in the face of growing economic pressure at home.

Increase in gas prices are fueling some pessimism about the US economy in general, with concerns about negative impacts on it at least in the short term, if not the long term.

That uncertainty is underpinned by a growing number of people who feel the Trump administration hasn’t spelled things out. Most call it a war of choice, not necessity.

Overall, most Americans feel that the conflict is not going well at the moment, although it has the continued support of most of the president’s Republican base, in part because they express a lot of confidence in him personally.

Read more here.

Iran’s launch on Friday of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK military base on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia – more than 2,000 miles from Iran – has raised serious questions about the range and supply of its longer-range missiles.

While the attack was unsuccessful, Iran had previously claimed that it was not even working to develop missiles with a range greater than about 1,200 miles, or what is typically called medium range.

The longer-range missiles used Friday could put some European capitals and more US military bases at risk.

UK officials gave no details about the failed Iranian attack, with the Ministry of Defense in London saying only that Iran was “attacking across the region.”

“These missiles are not intended to attack Israel. Their range extends to the capitals of Europe: Berlin, Paris and Rome are within direct threat range,” Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said late Saturday.

“They are putting everyone in their crosshairs,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, adding a call for other countries to heed President Trump’s “call for the international community to confront this terrorist and fanatical regime of fanatics.”

Netanyahu said the war was not just for the “security of the United States and the security of Israel, it is for the security of the entire world, and it is time for [other countries] act.”

News/AP