President Trump pushed back forcefully Tuesday on reports that communications between Washington and Tehran had broken down, insisting the U.S.-Iran negotiating track remains alive and that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be close. “Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous,” he wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday afternoon.
Trump said a memorandum of understanding to reopen the strait could be reached within the next week, although several issues still need to be resolved. According to reports, he is now seeking written commitments from Iran on specific nuclear-related concessions as part of a preliminary framework aimed at ending the conflict, after Tehran had previously provided only verbal assurances on certain aspects of its program. He reiterated that he will not allow Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz as part of any deal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced the message in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, saying that Iran has agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program that it had previously refused to discuss. “There is the prospect” that Iran could negotiate its nuclear program, Rubio said, while cautioning that this was not a guarantee that negotiations would produce a deal. The Associated Press reported that Rubio is optimistic on eventual Iran nuclear talks despite congressional skepticism.
The comments stood in sharp contrast to signals coming out of Tehran. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, citing a source, said that messages on the possible MOU had stopped several days ago, with the last being Iran’s “clear message” over Lebanon. State-linked outlet Tasnim had reported earlier in the week that Iranian negotiators would cease indirect communications with the U.S. and that Tehran would seek to fully shut the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah.
The mixed signals reflect how thoroughly the Lebanon front has become entangled with the Hormuz negotiations. Iran is seeking a halt to Israel’s incursion against its ally Hezbollah as a condition for progress, while Israel kept up strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, a day after Trump asked Prime Minister Netanyahu not to attack Beirut to avert further escalation. The result is a negotiation that Washington describes as advancing and Tehran describes as stalled.
Markets have leaned toward Washington’s reading. Oil prices rose for a third straight session Wednesday, with Brent climbing toward $98 a barrel, as the prospect of a near-term MOU competed with a persistent risk premium from the unresolved fighting. For energy markets, the central question is unchanged: whether a written agreement can actually be signed and, if so, how quickly tanker traffic through the strait can resume after more than three months of effective closure.
Continuing coverage: Geopolitics · Iran · Strait of Hormuz Explainer.