President Donald Trump said Monday that negotiations with Iran are already underway, calling the current talks Tehran’s “last chance” before what he warned would be a military campaign larger than any attack since World War II, while insisting he would rather pursue diplomacy than authorize such an operation.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said he delayed the planned strikes after Iran, backed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and other regional countries, urged him to give diplomacy another chance.
“This is a last chance,” Trump said. “This is a last chance for them to sign a good document.”
Pressed on why he was again delaying threatened strikes after repeatedly holding off on military action in recent months, Trump replied, “I want to give them every last chance before decapitation.”
Trump said he still has a major military operation prepared if diplomacy fails.
“Very tough to do what we have planned, still planned,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens.”
“If I’m given a chance to let a lot of people live, I want to give that chance,” he added. “This is a big move. To do an attack that big on a country, I’d rather not do it.”
Trump also disputed Iranian claims that no U.S.-Iran negotiations are taking place, saying discussions are already underway despite Tehran’s public denials.
“The talks are going on right now,” Trump said. “We are talking right now at the request of Iran, backed by Saudi Arabia, backed by UAE, and backed by Qatar.”
He added that the talks are “going to go quickly, one way or the other.”
The president outlined a two-stage framework for the negotiations, saying the immediate priority is reopening the Strait of Hormuz before broader talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
“We’re talking about the opening of the Strait, having it open literally by tomorrow — completely open,” Trump said. “That’s phase one, and phase two is we then will talk about the nuclear… the denuclearization of Iran.”
Trump also rejected any suggestion that Iran would be permitted to impose transit fees on commercial shipping through the strategic waterway.
“I’m not going to let them charge,” he said. “If anybody’s going to charge, we’ll charge. We have total control.”
Earlier Monday, Trump sharply criticized Iran’s leadership after Iranian officials publicly denied that direct negotiations with Washington were taking place.
“Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with ‘Oman.’”
Trump argued that Iran was misrepresenting the negotiations while overstating its control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“They then go on to give their usual blather in saying, the Strait of Hormuz will be operated powerfully by them, when it is already completely controlled by the United States Navy,” he wrote, adding that “nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.”
“Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades,” Trump added. “It is very simple, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
Iran, however, continued to reject Trump’s characterization of the diplomacy.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that Tehran is not engaged in direct negotiations with the United States and that its current discussions are with Oman over arrangements for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are not negotiating with the United States at this time,” Baqaei said during his weekly press briefing, adding that issues involving Washington “should be examined in the next stages.”
Baqaei said the talks with Oman are focused on establishing a mutually acceptable shipping corridor through the strategic waterway rather than restoring navigation to its prewar status, while maintaining that Iran would continue defending what it described as its sovereign rights in the strait.
Trump’s remarks came after he announced over the weekend that he had canceled planned strikes against Iran after saying regional allies and Tehran asked him to give diplomacy another opportunity.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said the proposed operation would have been “the biggest attack since World War II” before he agreed to delay it after Gulf allies urged him to pursue diplomacy.
The president said Monday he remains under “no time constraint” to conclude negotiations but emphasized that Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“This is why I’m doing this,” Trump said. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein