US postpones threats against Iran for “negotiations” that Tehran denies

March 23, 2026 Karsyn Larsen News 0

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates. — This Monday, the president of the United States, Donald Trumpextended the deadline for Iran reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz al international maritime transport and said his country would postpone attacks on Iranian power plants for five days.

Shortly after Trump made the announcement on his site Truth SocialIranian state television showed a graphic that read: “US president backtracks after Iran’s firm warning.” The extension came hours before his self-imposed deadline arrived hours later.

Trump postpones his threat

Trump wrote in capital letters that the United States and Iran have had “very good and productive talks” that could lead to “a complete and total resolution” to the war. Talks would continue “throughout the week,” he said.

Trump added that suspending his threat to attack power plants was “subject to the success of ongoing meetings and discussions.”

Trump did not elaborate on the negotiations that had taken place.

In statements to the press, Donald Trump announced the conditions that the US has proposed to Iran:

  1. No to the nuclear bomb.
  2. Discretion in missiles.
  3. Peace in the Middle East.
  4. No uranium enrichment.
  5. “We want enriched uranium”

“If this happens, it will be a great start for Iran to rebuild,” Trump said.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge any talks between the countries, and the state-run IRAN newspaper said Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied any negotiations with the United States had taken place.

A little earlier, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchihe did say that he spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Türkiye has been an intermediary before in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

Trump’s announcement came as the United Arab Emirates reported that its air defense was attempting to intercept new incoming Iranian fire on Monday afternoon.

Earlier on Monday, Iran warned it would attack power plants across the Middle East and mine the Persian Gulf after US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb power plants in the Islamic Republic if it did not reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

Fourth week of war

The war, now in its fourth week, has already had several dramatic turning points, including the death of Iran’s supreme leader, the bombing of a major Iranian gas field, and targeted attacks on oil and gas facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Gulf Arab nations. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices soaring and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors.

Trump’s ultimatum and Iran’s promise of retaliation now threaten to raise the stakes even further, with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.

If carried out, the attacks could cut off electricity to large numbers of people in Iran and the Gulf and knock out desalination plants that provide drinking water to many desert nations. Concerns are also growing about the consequences of any attack on nuclear facilities.

The feverish tone of the rhetoric shows how the war has spiraled out of control to a point unimaginable at the start of the conflict on February 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran.

Trump sets a deadline and crosses threats with Tehran

Trump said the United States would “wipe out” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, a deadline that would have expired late Monday Washington time but has now been extended.

Iran has closed the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported along with other important goods, in response to attacks by the United States and Israel. A trickle of ships have made it through, and Iran insists the crucial waterway remains open, just not to the United States, Israel or their allies.

That bottleneck has wreaked havoc on energy markets, pushed up prices of food and other goods far beyond the Middle East and sent shock waves through the global economy.

“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues in this direction,” he said. Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agencybased in Paris.

The Revolutionary Guard, an Iranian paramilitary body, promised retaliation if Trump carried out his threat, saying Iran would attack power plants in all areas that supply electricity to US bases, “as well as economic, industrial and energy infrastructure in which the Americans have interests.”

The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibafsaid Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region as legitimate targets, including energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.

The semi-official Fars agency, close to the Revolutionary Guardpublished a list of those facilities, including the United Arab Emirates nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles aimed at Dimona, Israel, near a key facility for the country’s long-suspected atomic weapons program. The Israeli facility was not damaged.

The head of the United States Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, Meanwhile, he claimed in an interview that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas, and suggested that those areas would be attacked.

“You need to stay inside for now,” Cooper told Iranian civilians in the interview with Farsi-language satellite network Iran International broadcast early Monday.

In his first one-on-one interview since the war began, Cooper said the United States and Israel were attacking infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s abilities to rebuild its military.

“It’s not just about today’s threat,” he said. “We are eliminating the threat of the future.”

Israel launches attacks on Tehran and Iran advises against any invasion

Israel launched new attacks on the Iranian capital on Monday, saying it had “begun a wave of large-scale attacks” against infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately giving further details. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It was not immediately clear what had been hit.

As the United States deployed more amphibious assault ships and additional Marines to the Middle East, Iran advised against a ground attack.

“Any attempt by the enemy to attack the coasts or islands of Iran will lead, naturally and in accordance with established military practice, to the mining of all access routes (…) in the Persian Gulf and along the coasts,” Iran’s Defense Council said in a statement.

Widespread use of mines could endanger not only military vessels but dozens of commercial ships waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and a cleanup would drag on long after the conflict ends.

Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces to Iran, but he has also said he maintains all options. Israel has suggested that its ground forces could participate in the war.

Israel has also attacked the Iran-linked militia Hezbollah in Lebanon during the war, as the group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.

In recent days, Israel has attacked many apartment buildings in Beirut and bombed bridges over the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese president Joseph Aoun He described the attack on the bridges as “a prelude to a ground invasion,” while Egypt denounced the attacks as “collective punishment” of civilians for Hezbollah’s actions.

Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.

Iran’s death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian attacks. At least 13 members of the US military have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Arab Gulf states.

Crude oil prices have risen more than 50% since the start of the war

Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trading, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, around $113 a barrel, up nearly 55% since the war began.

Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior United Nations official, said the world has already seen a domino effect, including “exponential rises in oil, fuel and gas prices,” with a far-reaching impact on millions, mainly in developing countries in Asia and Africa.

“There is no military solution,” he said.

In another sign of the far-reaching effects, South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said on Monday it had to close a major industrial plant because the war had disrupted supplies of naphtha, a petroleum product used in making plastics.

You might also be interested in: “Iran launches missiles against the military base in Diego García, but the US remains out of reach”



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