President Donald Trump said last night the United States was talking to ‘the right people’ in Iran in order to reach an agreement to end hostilities, adding that the Iranians want to reach a deal very badly.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said ‘we’re in negotiations right now’ with Iran but would not provide details, particularly on whether US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner planned talks this week.
He also said that Iran had made a major energy-related concession to the US, describing it as a positive development.
Trump suggested the gift was related to the Strait of Hormuz, the oil transit waterway that the United States has struggled to keep open.
“They gave us a present and the present arrived today, and it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said.
“It wasn’t nuclear, it was oil-and gas-related, and it was a very nice thing they did.”
Trump, reiterating that he felt the United States had already won the war, indicated that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was disappointed as how quickly the campaign had gone.
“Pete didn’t want it to be settled,” he said, but did not give details.
The US president said Witkoff, Kushner, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were involved in negotiations.
Pakistan has said it is willing to host talks between the United States and Iran.
Iran, meanwhile, told International Maritime Organisation member states that ‘non-hostile vessels’ may transit the Strait of Hormuz if they co-ordinate with Iranian authorities, the Financial Times reported last night, citing a letter.
The US-Israeli war against Iran has all but halted shipments of about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz, causing oil supply disruption.
In the letter circulated among IMO members on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran had “taken necessary and proportionate measures to prevent the aggressors and their supporters from exploiting the Strait of Hormuz to advance hostile operations against Iran,” the newspaper said.
Tehran said in the letter that vessels linked to the US and Israel, as well as ‘other participants in the aggression, do not qualify for innocent or non-hostile passage,’ the FT said.
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