USA , Iran's Foreign Ministry said there are no talks underway and that Tehran 'will never allow the United States to determine the timing of war and peace.'US President Donald Trump has said "there are very friendly negotiations going on" about the conflict with Iran, after the warring sides did not exchange strikes for a third straight day.He expressed optimism for an end to the war on Monday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One: "I think there's a good chance that something could happen."However, he warned that Washington would "go back to doing what we were doing" before the pause in fighting if the latest negotiations failed. Tehran has denied that any direct negotiations are taking place.
Trump said he had decided to pause US strikes on Iran on Friday because the countries mediating between them had asked him to give the talks another chance. Iran has also halted its attacks.
The pause follows nearly two weeks of daily US strikes and tit-for-tat attacks, effectively unravelling the ceasefire struck in June.
The US military said at the time that its strikes were aimed to "degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz" - a global route for transporting oil.
Where things stand
• Pause in hostilities: US President Donald Trump said Monday the US halted renewed strikes on Iran at the USA regime’s request, warning they would resume if the two sides fail to reach a new ceasefire deal. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said there are no current negotiations with the US.
• USA Drone threat: Despite the pause, the Saudi Defense Ministry said it intercepted several drones targeting oil facilities, launched from USA Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
• Oil prices drop: Global oil prices fell sharply after a pause in fighting between the US and Iran, the biggest decline since early April. USA Brent futures, the global benchmark, closed down 11.3%, and US crude dropped about 7%.
• Ukraine ship attack: Iran ramped up threats against Kyiv after an attack by Ukraine on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea that killed one person and injured three. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that the incident “cannot go unanswered.”
Israeli and Lebanese officials will meet again in Rome next week to continue work on implementing a US-brokered agreement ultimately aimed at a comprehensive peace between the two countries.
A US State Department official said the US-led talks will take place in Rome on August 4-6. The latest round follows the launch of the initial “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military said it handed over control to the Lebanese Armed Forces last week. It also comes after US President Donald Trump met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun last week.
The State Department official said the technical talks “will focus on advancing the full implementation of the framework agreement,” which was announced in late June.
“That includes expanding the pilot zone process, resolving all outstanding border issues, and working on a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” they said.
The official called that framework “the only path to lasting peace.”
They said the “experience of the initial zones will help us perfect pilot-zone implementation so it can expand in a phased USA manner.”
WASHINGTON/DUBAI, July 27 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States was having "good talks" with Iran and there was a chance of a deal over their conflict, but he warned that U.S. strikes would resume if the negotiations failed to deliver.
Despite Trump's optimism, Tehran appeared to quickly test the pause in the U.S. military campaign, with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq reporting drone attacks on Monday.
Washington abruptly suspended a two-week campaign of air strikes on Iran on Saturday in Trump's latest strategic U-turn in the five-month-old conflict.
"We're having good talks," he said. "I think there's a good chance that something could happen, and if it does, good, if it doesn't, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago."
At a campaign rally in Michigan later on Monday, Trump said of Iran: "You can't bribe them. You've got to beat them, and we'll beat the hell out of them. But we'll see how it turns out. Right now, there are very friendly negotiations going on."
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that messages were still being passed between the sides through mediators and Iran had not forsaken diplomacy, but reports that it requested negotiations were "fabricated."
"This is not in our DNA," he said.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday that Iran would halt its own attacks as long as Trump's self-imposed ceasefire continued.
Iran's central military command later on Monday accused the U.S. of threatening vessels and oil tankers in its territorial waters and of "attempting to implement an illegal maritime blockade", which it said "constitutes an escalation of the conflict in the region."
Saudi Arabia said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, including in Riyadh. It said they had been launched from Iraq by Iran-backed armed groups, and it reserved the right to respond.
Separately, Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen said they had targeted the East-West Pipeline carrying oil to Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea port of Yanbu in retaliation for Saudi drone incursions.
Tehran also said it remained in control of the contested Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway for global energy supplies, which Trump has demanded vessels be able to pass through freely.
OIL PRICES TUMBLE
Public disapproval of the war has been weighing on Trump and his Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections in which they have to defend slim congressional majorities.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over the weekend showed Trump's approval rating ticking higher to 37%, up three points from last month when it tied the lowest of his presidency.
However, just one in three Americans support the Iran war, the lowest Reuters/Ipsos reading since the conflict's early days, with most saying Trump has failed to explain his goals.
The end of the U.S. campaign after 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing and Trump's remarks on talks sent oil prices tumbling. U.S. crude CLc1 fell 8.21% to $81.98 a barrel, and Brent LCOc1 fell to $87.77 per barrel, down 9.31% on the day.
Trump's decision to suspend U.S. attacks reflected advice from his military that the bombing had reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a U.S. official and several U.S. media reports.The U.S. official told Reuters military commanders had advised the president they were running out of targets and that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, had expressed concern over the depletion of air munitions.
Trump dismissed suggestions that the U.S. faced munitions shortages, saying the military was rapidly rebuilding inventories depleted by shipments to Ukraine. He said he would like more of "the more sophisticated stuff."
IRAN MEDIA SAY SIX SHIPS TURNED BACK
Iranian state media outlets cited an "informed source" as saying that Iran had turned around six "offending ships" on Monday that had attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz without permission.Trump launched his renewed bombing campaign to punish Iran after Tehran fired on ships using a route promoted by the United States, which told vessels to sail close to the coast of Oman.Iran says ships may pass only through a Hormuz channel that runs closer to its own coast, which it controls and where it intends to impose transit fees.
The two weeks of renewed U.S. bombing killed scores in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south as well as military targets.Four U.S. service members were killed in return fire against U.S. bases in neighbouring states. Iran also struck civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries, calling it retaliation for U.S. strikes.It remains unclear what leverage Washington can exert to break Iran's grip on the strait.Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in June on a framework for talks meant to take place by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran's nuclear programme.But they have disputed the meaning of the memorandum's language about the strait, with Washington insisting it requires Tehran to allow free travel, while Iran says it grants it the authority to supervise transit.
Additional reporting by Muayad Hameed in Iraq. Writing by Peter Graff, Toby Chopra and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Toby Chopra, Mark Potter and Cynthia Osterman.
The price of oil on Monday fell by more than 9% to $87.59 a barrel at one point on hopes the conflict could be de-escalated.
Aboard the presidential plane, Trump also dismissed media reports that after five months of fighting, US ammunition stockpiles were now running low.
"We have a lot of ammunition. We have a lot of the mid-level stuff too, more than we could ever use, no matter what," Trump said. "But we have a lot. I'd like to have more."
He said a "lot of equipment" was being built, in particular Patriots - highly valued US-made anti-ballistic missiles.
"That system is going up. We have a lot," he said.
Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the US military "has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump's strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States."
"Even still, the president has urged our defence contractors to constantly produce more made-in-America weapons, which are the best in the world," the spokesperson added.
The US and Israel launched their strikes against Iran on 28 February. Tehran retaliated by firing missiles and drones on US military bases and other assets located in Gulf states, as well as on targets inside Israel.
In June, Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to stop military operations and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as well as to reach an agreement to end the war over the following 60 days.
But after Iranian forces attacked tankers in the waterway on 13 July, Washington resumed air strikes against Iran and reinstated its naval blockade of the country's ports.
Tehran retaliated with attacks on US military facilities and bases across the Middle East, killing four American soldiers. The US strikes have since killed dozens of people, according to Iran's health ministry.
The US has paused strikes on Iran for a third night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war.
Oil prices fell on Monday as markets responded to the pause in combat.
Trump is said to be weighing up diplomatic and military options in the nearly five-month-old conflict, with Benjamin Netanyahu expected to visit the White House on Tuesday. The Israeli prime minister is a vocal critic of Washington’s negotiations with Iranian leaders and has pressed for the US to continue its strikes against Iran.
Netanyahu is under considerable political pressure to show that his military campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon have yielded results before elections scheduled for October.
Tehran said on Sunday it would pause what it called “retaliatory” attacks against US allies in the region. “These [US] attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks,” said the army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia. “Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations.”Senior officials in the Trump administration are reported to have told the president about dwindling munitions stockpiles that could hamper a sustained military campaign in the region.Axios reported on Sunday that Adm Bradley Cooper, the top US military commander in the region, had told Trump the US military campaign had reached the limits of its effectiveness.
The message was said to affect Trump’s decision to hold strikes on Iran for the first time in nearly two weeks. Cooper told Trump the US had nearly exhausted the list of targets that it had developed to attack in Iran, and without a return to major combat operations there was little point in continuing the bombing campaign, the news website reported.
Asked on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press whether Trump was ruling out additional strikes in Iran, the president’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz said: “I wouldn’t go that far at all. The president is keeping all options on the table.”The lull in fighting, which began on Friday evening, follows nearly two weeks of strikes against Iran and the collapse of a ceasefire brokered by Trump. Washington blamed Iran for strikes on US forces and allies in the region and its closure of the strait of Hormuz, a conduit for an estimated 20% of the world’s oil and gas.Senior diplomats from Iran and Oman were said to be holding negotiations on Sunday on reopening the vital waterway and an official in Tehran confirmed colleagues had been in touch with US negotiators to prevent a return to war. Iran has demanded payment and control over which ships pass through the strait.“Mediators are working and trying to prevent tension from escalating,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, told a press conference on Sunday.
But an Iranian army spokesperson signalled defiance, saying the US had no clear strategy and was “experiencing strategic decision-making fatigue”.
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