War in the Middle East: what do we know about negotiations between the United States and Iran mentioned by Donald Trump

The American president gives Iran a five-day ultimatum to seal a deal, otherwise the United States will resume bombing energy infrastructure. Tehran denies any negotiations.

Donald Trump has changed course: while the American president threatened to bomb Iranian power stations if Tehran did not unblock the Strait of Hormuz on Monday March 23 in the evening, he has now postponed the deadline by five days and claims that peace negotiations are currently underway, with a mysterious Iranian interlocutor, to find a quick resolution to this war.

But these recent developments remain unclear. Donald Trump’s statements have not been confirmed at this stage by Tehran, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs even calling it “fake news.”

On the other hand, Washington maintains that there were discussions on Sunday and Monday evening, over the phone, between American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kusher, and a senior Iranian official, highly respected, who is currently leading Iran, but not the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The hypothesis of a meeting organized between the two camps has been mentioned, but it has been denied.

According to Donald Trump, these mysterious discussions are well advanced, particularly regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, and the American president now speaks of “regime change underway for Iran.” He has given a five-day ultimatum, until this Saturday, to reach a complete agreement to end the conflict, otherwise the United States will “continue to bomb energetically” Iranian energy infrastructures, he affirms. Some media even mention an organized meeting between the two sides, a negotiation session that should take place sometime this week in Islamabad, Pakistan.

If the Iranians refuse to confirm possible direct discussions with the Americans, several diplomatic sources from the Middle East claim to be intermediaries between the two sides. Egyptian, Turkish, Omani, Pakistani officials also state that they have been passing messages in recent days. Their goal: to try to prevent the escalation promised by Donald Trump, and above all, to try to obtain the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz, as it weakens the global economy.

But all these intermediaries acknowledge that the positions of the two parties to start possible negotiations are very far apart. On one side, the Iranians consider themselves in a position of strength as more than 16,000 strikes against them in the past three weeks have not toppled the regime, and they continue to hold the upper hand by blocking Hormuz. They are thus demanding the right to collect a fee for every ship passing through the strait, the withdrawal of American bases in the Gulf region, and solid guarantees that neither the United States nor Israel will attack them in the future.

On the other hand, Donald Trump needs a quick exit from this war, but he wants to achieve at least one of his war objectives, namely the Iranian nuclear issue, the ballistic program, regime change, or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The price he will have to negotiate remains to be seen.