The president says that ‘talks are continuing, at a rapid pace,’ with Iran despite a report from an Iranian semi-official news outlet saying talks had halted.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that negotiations between Washington and Tehran are continuing “at a rapid pace” and that Israel and Hezbollah will stop attacking each other following a flare-up of fighting over the past weekend.
“Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The president also wrote in another social media post that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that no Israeli troops will be sent to Beirut following recent Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital city.
Additionally, Trump said he spoke with representatives of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization based in Lebanon, who said they “agreed that all shooting will stop” and that “Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”
The comments from Trump came as tensions rose in the Middle East after Israel and Hezbollah launched strikes upon one another, and also as the United States and Iran attacked each other over the weekend.
Trump’s comments emerged after Israel’s government ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and as Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, including the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa.
A joint statement by Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the orders to attack targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs followed what they called repeated violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah and “attacks against our cities and citizens.”
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated Monday that any ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is a “ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
“Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts,” he wrote in a post on X, according to a translation from Persian. “The United States and Israel bear responsibility for the consequences of any breach of the truce.”
Earlier Monday, Iranian semi-official news outlet Tasnim reported that Iran halted talks with the United States in response to the Israeli–Hezbollah fighting. Speaking to CNBC on Monday afternoon, Trump said that he does not “care if they’re over, honestly,” adding that the discussions between the two sides have “started to get very boring.”
But Trump told the news outlet that the Iranians have not told the United States they are stopping negotiations.
Also in the CNBC interview, the president said that oil and gas prices would drop soon, although he did not say why.
