Iran denies any talks with US after Trump claims ‘productive’ discussions

Iran parliament speaker says US president using idea of talks to ‘escape quagmire in which US and Israel are trapped’.A firefighter hoses down smouldering rubble at a residential building hit in a US-Israeli attack in Tehran, Iran, on March 23, 2026 [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]Published On 23 Mar 2026Senior Iranian officials have denied that Iran held talks with the United States, just hours after US President Donald Trump claimed “very good and productive conversations” had taken place towards ending the war.Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a social media post on Monday that “no negotiations have been held with the US”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Trump says Iran, US seeking ‘deal’ after he pauses strikes on power plantslist 2 of 3The Take: How the Iran war is about to hit your walletlist 3 of 3Trump signals off-ramp in Iran war despite no ‘regime change’end of list“Fakenews [sic] is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.That echoed earlier remarks from Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, who also denied that any discussions with the US had taken place.In comments shared by Iran’s official IRNA news agency, Baghaei said that “messages have been received from some friendly countries regarding the US’s request for negotiations to end the war”.The denials come as the US-Israeli war on Iran has entered its fourth week, with the Israeli military saying on Monday that it had launched a fresh wave of attacks on the Iranian capital, Tehran.Iran also has continued to fire missiles and drones across the wider Middle East and essentially shut the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Gulf waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies transit.That has sent global energy prices soaring and raised concerns about the war’s escalating toll on people around the world.On Saturday, Trump had threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the country did not open the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels within 48 hours.But in an all-caps Truth Social post on Monday morning, the US president said he had instructed the US Department of Defense “to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five day period” amid the purported talks with Iran.He said the postponement was subject to “the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions”.Separately, Trump also told reporters that the talks took place on Sunday. He said the US had been speaking with “a top person” in Iran, without specifying who exactly that person was.“They want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too,” Trump said. “We’re doing a five-day period, we’ll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we’re going to end up settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke with Trump on Monday and that the US president believes “there is an opportunity to leverage” the war on Iran to reach an agreement.“In parallel, we continue to attack both in Iran and Lebanon,” Netanyahu said, adding: “We will safeguard our vital interests in any agreement.”Regional de-escalation pushReporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem noted that while Iran has denied that any talks have taken place, regional actors have been pushing for de-escalation.“There are some messages that are being conveyed by regional players,” Hashem said.“Everyone right now is trying to bring both sides back to a level where there is a possibility to start a kind of framework [for talks]. But how will this be reflected on the ground, how will this be demonstrated? This is the big question.”Hassan Ahmadian, a professor at the University of Tehran, said Trump could be using the prospect of talks as a way to backtrack from his 48-hour ultimatum to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure, which would have further escalated the war.“It seems that there are mediation efforts that started regionally, by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkiye, trying to find a way out of this standoff,” Ahmadian told Al Jazeera.“But [Trump] going this heavy on this mediation effort speaks volumes to him trying to climb down … [from] the deadline he issued and the Iranian threat of retaliation that would have been really significant, according to the Iranians,” he said.“He wanted to climb down, and this mediation effort, I think, was his way to [do it].”