Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, said Monday that talks with Iran were better than ever, though he acknowledged that the sides had yet to reach understandings.
Kushner, who met earlier during his Middle East visit with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Fox News that U.S. officials were speaking with “different parts” of the Iranian government. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps quickly rejected the claim.
“There are no talks,” IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohabi told Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “This lie by Trump is nothing more than a fantasy.”
Kushner’s comments came as indirect contacts continue through regional mediators, particularly Qatar, Pakistan and Oman. Oman has also been engaged with Tehran over shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that intermediaries were exchanging messages with Tehran but stressed that this did not amount to negotiations.
“The mediators, Qatar and Pakistan, are exchanging messages and communicating with us, but that does not mean that we are entering negotiations,” he said. “We have still not made a decision on whether to resume negotiations with the United States.”
Mohabi went further, denying that senior IRGC officials were holding any discussions with Washington.
“There are no talks between senior Revolutionary Guard officials and the Americans,” he said, accusing Trump of promoting the claim because of what he described as “delusions resulting from defeat and despair in the war.”
His remarks echoed Iranian and Arab officials cited by The Wall Street Journal, who said hard-line leaders in Tehran believe previous understandings were intended primarily to ease pressure on the global economy and buy time.
Mohabi also accused Trump of using public statements about diplomacy to influence energy markets.
“Trump is trying to control oil prices through these statements,” he said.
He reiterated Iran’s position that progress would come only if Washington accepted Tehran’s conditions.
“The sooner the Americans accept defeat, the more they will save their country from increasingly heavy losses,” Mohabi said.
Danny Citrinowicz, a former head of the Iran branch in the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division and now a senior researcher in the Iran and Shiite Axis program at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the lack of an agreement should not simply be attributed to divisions inside the Iranian leadership.
“The easiest way to explain why no agreement has been reached with Iran is to blame disagreements within the Iranian leadership,” he said. “But this episode shows that even if there are disagreements in Tehran, there is a fairly broad consensus over the policy that should be adopted in negotiations with the American administration.”
“There is a consensus regarding the line that should be taken toward the administration,” he added.
Trump, meanwhile, told reporters in the Oval Office that Iran wanted an agreement.
Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
“Look, we’re there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and it will not have one,” Trump said. He argued that rebuilding Iran’s nuclear capabilities following earlier U.S. B-2 bomber strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities would take considerable time.
Asked about his threat to declare the Strait of Hormuz American territory, Trump called it “a great idea.”
“We control the strait through the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it our territory,” he said.
Trump acknowledged that Iran could still disrupt shipping, including by laying naval mines, but said the blockade had been highly effective.
“They can be a nuisance. They can put a mine in the water, and people don’t like mines hitting their billion-dollar ships,” he said. “But the blockade has been very effective, and, you know, we’re taking out millions of barrels of oil a week right now.”
Trump also claimed Iran was facing severe economic and military pressure.
“Iran is in big trouble,” he said. “They have 300% inflation. The country is in terrible shape, and the military has been completely defeated.”
Asked about his threat to bomb Oman, which has been holding talks with Iran over management of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said he did not believe Muscat had handled the issue particularly well.
“But we’ll take care of them very easily, just like we do with others,” he said, referring to Iran.