Iran Rules Out Talks With US Until Washington 'Retreats' From Positions

Tensions have gripped the Middle East as an interim deal to end the US-Iran war buckles under repeated crossfire in the region.

Iran has ruled out the possibility of entering fresh negotiations with the United States, the country’s state media reported. Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, citing a source close to its negotiating team, reported on Saturday that talks will not take place unless Washington first retreats from its current positions. The source also dismissed reports suggesting that Tehran had sought dialogue, calling such claims baseless and aligned with pro-Israel narratives.

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Saturday after the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw open calls for his killing. A thousand “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,” Trump wrote on his website.

Trump made the comments on his Truth Social after senior US officials demanded that Iran make a public statement saying the Strait of Hormuz is open and that ships crossing the vital corridor won’t be attacked any longer.

So far, Tehran has not done so, instead insisting that the route remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, upending decades of precedent that consider the strait an international waterway.

There had been multiple days of US airstrikes targeting Iran, as well as Iranian retaliatory fire targeting nations across the Middle East. Those strikes had been sparked by Iran attacking three ships in the strait earlier this week.