Trump Says Iran “Eager for Deal”, Granting More Time for Talks

25/03/2026

DUBAI, (AP), Mar 25: U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. was talking with an Iranian leader and claimed the Islamic Republic was eager for a deal to end the war. He also extended a deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, saying it has an additional five days.

Trump’s turnaround, which held out the possibility of resolving the war now in its fourth week, served to drive down oil prices and jolt stocks. It offered a reprieve after the U.S. and Iran traded threats over the weekend that could have cut electricity to millions in Iran and around the Gulf, and knocked out desalination plants providing many desert nations with drinking water.

Trump told reporters Iran wants “to make a deal,” and he claimed U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had held talks Sunday with an Iranian leader. He did not say who that was, but said the U.S. has not talked to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

Iran denied talks had been held. “No negotiations have been held with the US,” Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf posted on X, adding that “fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets.”

Trump says Iran would give up its enriched uranium

Trump said if a deal is reached, the U.S. would move to take Iran’s enriched uranium, which is critical to its disputed nuclear program. Iran has adamantly refused such demands in the past, insisting it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

Iran has already performed 99% of the centrifuge work required to produce weapons-grade uranium for nine nuclear weapons, said Robert Goldston, a Princeton University professor who researches arms control and fusion energy. As of June 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Iran had 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of highly enriched uranium.

Turkey and Egypt, meanwhile, said they had spoken to the warring parties, the first sign of coordinated mediation from regional heavyweights.

The war launched by the United States and Israel has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors.

Trump threatened over the weekend to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passed before the war, within 48 hours. That deadline would have expired late Monday Washington time.