Washington — President Trump said early Monday that he is postponing airstrikes on Iran’s power plants after “very good and productive conversations” over the last two days about reopening the Strait of Hormuz. However, Iran’s foreign ministry denied any such talks.
“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,” Mr. Trump posted on social media.
An Iranian source told state media, however, that there has been no direct or indirect communication with the U.S.
In a statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry denies the claims made by Mr. Trump regarding negotiations taking place between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic.
Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo asked the president about that seeming discrepancy. She reported that he said he isn’t sure what they’re referring to, because the latest talks took place last night with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Bartiromo said the president told her Iran wants “badly” to reach a deal.
Mr. Trump’s comments on Monday are an about-face from a social media post over the weekend in which he declared that if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. would “hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that “to the extent we’re degrading their military capability and their defense industrial base, all options should be on the table, and the president’s made that very clear.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told Politico last week that an attack on energy infrastructure from either side could constitute a war crime. Waltz responded on Sunday that “when you have a regime that has its grips in so much critical infrastructure that’s using it to further, not only the repression of its own people, to attack its neighbors and in contravention of U.N. sanctions, to march towards a nuclear weapon, then that makes those legitimate targets.”
The Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway that, before the Iran war, had enabled the flow of 20% of the world’s oil shipments, has been effectively closed since the war began. Iran said over the weekend that the Strait would be “completely closed” if Mr. Trump carried out his threats on nuclear power plants.
Oil and gas prices both fell immediately on Monday morning upon Mr. Trump’s announcement on talks.