Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday said the US and Iran continue to exchange messages but cautioned that “no final conclusions should be drawn” until the talks result in “clear and tangible results.”
The Iranian diplomat appeared to dismiss recent media reports about a potential deal. “Everything being said now is speculation and should not be taken seriously,” he said.
Araghchi’s comments come two days after President Trump suggested he would make a “final determination” on a possible deal with Iran, though, according to Iranian media reports, Tehran never agreed to the reported terms. Trump held a Situation Room meeting with his top officials, which reportedly ended without him making a decision.
Axios reported that Trump ordered his officials to revise a deal his negotiators had reached with Iranian officials, and Iranian media then reported that Tehran had rejected the US president’s changes and submitted new amendments.
On Sunday, Trump again threatened to restart the full-scale bombing campaign against Iran if the country doesn’t agree to his demands, while insisting he was in no hurry to reach a solution despite rising gas prices in the US.
“I’d like to say I’m in a hurry because gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down, but if you’re going to be in a hurry, you’re not going to make a good deal,” the president said in an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Fox News.
“And slowly but surely we’re getting, I think, what we want, and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end it a different way. We’re going to make a great deal, [otherwise] we’ll just go back and finish it off militarily,” he added.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said over the weekend that the US was ready to restart full-scale strikes on Iran, downplaying concerns about US military readiness due to the depletion of stockpiles in the war. “Our ability to recommence if necessary is we are more than capable, our stockpiles are more than suited for that, both there and around the globe because of how we balance exquisite and more plentiful munitions,” he said at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore.
On May 20, Middle East Eye reported that President Trump had postponed his plans to restart the bombing campaign against Iran due to a request from Saudi Arabia to hold off on the strikes until after the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, which concluded on Saturday.
The MEE report cited two senior Gulf officials and a senior US official, all of whom said that they believe the US will resume the war after the Hajj period. If Trump is planning to restart the bombing campaign and it is based around the Hajj, he would likely wait several more days, giving pilgrims time to leave the country.
