New Delhi:
The Israeli media has claimed that Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has been in talks with US officials including President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Ghalibaf denied the claim in posts on social media. While some criticised him for allegedly working behind the back of Iranian leaders, others pointed at what they called Israeli disinformation campaign to create chaos and confusion for both the US and Iran, especially when there’s a strong buzz of talks and hopes are high for the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors. All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X.
“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” he said.
Earlier this evening Trump had said the US has been speaking with a lot of leaders in Iran and not just one person. In another interaction with the press, Trump said the US has been talking to a particular senior leader in Iran, not the new supreme leader.
Trump had earlier given a deadline to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. Later, he announced a five-day pause against striking Iranian energy and power infrastructure in order to allow the talks that he claimed has been going on to proceed.
In their comments on the post by Ghalibaf, social media users said Israel lied to make the Iranian leader a subject of doubt and become a target from his own people.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, however, revealed that the Islamic nation received messages from the US routed via friendly countries to ask for talks and end the war.
“[They were]… received and answered in line with Iran’s principles,” he said. “We warn that any attack on Iran’s critical infrastructure – especially energy facilities – would trigger a swift and decisive response from its armed forces.”
He dismissed claims of any negotiations with Washington over the past 24 days. “Iran’s position on the Strait of Hormuz and the terms for ending the war remain unchanged.”
Earlier today, the US president kept on insisting the talks were indeed going on. Trump said there are “major points of agreement” in the US-Iran talks which he said must result in Tehran giving up its nuclear ambitions and enriched uranium stockpile.
“We’ve wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we’re dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader,” Trump told reporters. “We want no enrichment, but we also want the enriched uranium.”
