Iran parliament speaker: ‘No negotiations with the US’

Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, denied on Monday that Iran was negotiating with the US to end the war.

Hours earlier, US President Donald Trump said the US was currently holding negotiations with Iran, and that Iran wanted to reach a deal to end the war as it entered its fourth week.

Iran refuted that there had been any high-level communications with the White House and dismissed Trump's rhetoric as a thinly veiled attempt to manipulate jittery global markets.

“No negotiations have been held with the US," Qalibaf posted on X.

"And fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”

In a social media message timed before markets opened, Trump said he was putting off for five days plans he announced over the weekend to bomb Iran's power plants unless Tehran opened the Strait of Hormuz by Monday evening.

The critical passageway for some 20% of the world's crude has been effectively shuttered during the war, sending oil and gas prices soaring.

He decided to hold back on targeting Iran's critical infrastructure, Trump explained, because his envoys, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, had “very good” talks over the weekend with unnamed “respected” Iranian officials on ending hostilities.