US President Donald Trump said Monday he will hold off on attacking Iranian power plants for five days after “very good” talks with Tehran, an abrupt shift that immediately eased pressure on rattled markets.
But Iranian media said there were no negotiations between Tehran and Washington after Trump’s announcement on social media.
“There are no talks between Tehran and Washington,” said Mehr news agency, citing Iran’s foreign ministry, adding that Trump’s statements were part of a push “to reduce energy prices”. Other media carried similar reports.
Hours before the expiration of his two-day ultimatum—in which he threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power infrastructure if it did not reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz—Trump suddenly reported with little detail that diplomacy was underway, after he earlier shunned talks.
In a social media post characteristically in all capital letters and containing typographical errors, Trump said the United States and Iran “have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
“Based on the tenor and tone” of the talks, “witch (sic) will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The post came just hours before Wall Street was set to open after brutal selloffs on European and Asian markets and a further climb in the price of oil.
Market pressure immediately eased after Trump’s post, including in the price of oil which has posed an increasing political headache for Trump as Americans complain of higher prices at the pump.
Trump had initially issued through social media a deadline of 2344 GMT Monday—early Tuesday in Tehran (7:44 a.m. in Manila)—for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passageway into the Gulf through which one-fifth of the world’s oil transits.
Iran had partly closed the strait as part of its retaliation for US and Israeli attacks launched on February 28 that have killed top officials including the cleric-run nation’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.
Iran had remained defiant and threatened that if Trump went ahead, it would target vital infrastructure across the Gulf including energy sites and desalination plants critical in the parched region.
Trump offered no immediate details on the purported new talks. He has earlier insisted that Iran was asking to talk — which Tehran denied — but that he refused.
The United States and Iran were holding talks on a nuclear accord through Omani mediation days before the United States and Israel attacked.
Earlier, Iran threatened to deploy naval mines in the Gulf and target power plants across the region as it defied Trump’s ultimatum for the Islamic republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The ramped-up rhetoric came after stark warnings that the world faces an energy crisis worse than both 1970s oil shocks combined if the US-Israeli war with Iran drags on.
Iran gave no indication of bending to the US leader’s will as the war enters its fourth week. Instead, it threatened to sow “drifting mines” across the Gulf if its coasts or islands are attacked — a tactic Iran deployed during the 1980s conflict with Iraq, with the potential to further choke the economically vital waterway.
And it doubled down by issuing maps of potential energy targets in the region — designating Israel’s two largest power plants as well as sites in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait.
“Say goodbye to electricity!” ran the title of one infographic.
“In the event of the slightest attack on the electricity infrastructure of the Islamic republic, the entire region will be plunged into darkness,” said the graphic carried by Mehr news agency.
Israel hit Tehran with fresh strikes early Monday—with Agence France-Presse (AFP) witnessing a thick plume of black smoke billowing in the city’s east.
Later in the day, another series of blasts were heard in the Iranian capital, though it was not immediately clear what had been hit.
Tehran has already retaliated against US-Israeli assaults by throttling traffic through Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of global crude, hitting energy sites and US embassies across the Gulf as well as targets in Israel.
Unless the war ends soon, the head of the International Energy Agency said daily oil losses put the world on track for a crisis worse than the combined impact of both 1970s oil shocks and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At least 40 energy assets across the oil- and gas-exporting region are already “severely or very severely damaged,” warned Fatih Birol, with oil prices driven above $100 a barrel.
“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues,” said the IEA boss said.
Stocks tumbled and oil prices rose again Monday as Trump and Iran traded threats.
Sign of the conflict’s tentacular impact, the world’s second economy China said it was capping domestic fuel cost increases to mitigate the effect of surging oil prices.
Greece also moved to mitigate the cost of the war by earmarking relief for households and farmers, while in Cambodia a major energy supplier said it would halt sales of liquefied petroleum gas over war-linked disruption.
Weighing in from Beijing after Trump’s latest threats, China’s foreign ministry warned of an “uncontrollable situation” should the war expand further, while key Iran ally Russia urged renewed diplomatic efforts to defuse the “catastrophically tense situation.”
The US president has offered varying timelines and objectives for the war, saying Friday he was considering “winding down” the operation — only to later threaten Iran’s power plants.
Iran has more than 90 power plants, some of them located on the Gulf coast. The country operates a decentralized electricity system, with multiple generation sites and hundreds of substations nationwide.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile spoken of a long-term campaign against Iran’s government, a state sponsor of Hamas, which launched the October 7, 2023 attack triggering the Gaza war.
Israel has also expanded its ground campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning of “weeks of fighting” in the country.
The Lebanon violence has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than a million, according to the health ministry.
Israel prides itself on its air defenses, and Trump and Netanyahu both claim to have knocked out key Iranian military sites.
But Iranian missiles evaded the defenses over the weekend to land in two southern towns, including Dimona, close to Israel’s desert nuclear facility, injuring dozens on Saturday.
“We thought we were safe,” Galit Amir, a 50-year-old care provider, told AFP in Dimona.
According to rescuers, a missile landed about five kilometres from what is widely believed to be the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal — although Israel denies possessing nuclear weapons.
On Monday Israel’s military said it was working to intercept a new salvo of missiles from Iran — while confirming its own artillery fire had killed an Israeli civilian a day earlier near the Lebanese border.
In Iran, at least 3,230 people have died in the war, including 1,406 civilians, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. AFP is unable to access the sites of strikes nor independently verify tolls in Iran.
