Trump: US Open to Talks With Iran, Tehran Sets Conditions
President Donald Trump says the US is open to talks with Iran, while Tehran says there will be no negotiations until its conditions are met. The Hormuz meeting in Oman was postponed with no new date.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday, September 14, that America is open to talks with Iran, the first such opening after months of stalled diplomacy between the two countries. For Serbia this is not a distant story. The price of Brent crude, which through import flows also shapes fuel prices at home, hinges on whether the Hormuz Strait stays a bottleneck for world trade or opens back up. The same day Trump posted his message, Brent crossed 107 dollars a barrel on the market, and the region was left without the meeting that was supposed to push talks on the strait off dead center.
Trump posted the message on his network, Truth Social, with the caveat that the final call on US involvement is his alone.
The failed nation of Iran wants to make a deal, fast and desperate. I will decide whether the United States chooses to get involved, and we are open to that idea.
The Israeli paper The Times of Israel notes that Trump has repeatedly claimed the opposite in the past, insisting he did not want to negotiate with Iran, so Monday’s message marks a shift in tone, if not necessarily in the substance of the negotiating position.
What is behind the stalled talks
Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 18 to end the war, with a 60 day window for negotiations. That deadline, according to Armenia’s public broadcaster, expired on August 17, and talks have been effectively frozen ever since, while the two sides keep clashing. The war escalated further in late February, when the US and Israel struck Iran, and the latest flare up began after American forces hit Iranian naval targets near the Hormuz Strait, following Iranian attacks on commercial oil tankers that collapsed a fragile truce.
Against that backdrop, Iran is showing no sign of backing down. Mohsen Rezai, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, put it bluntly: “No talks until Iran’s conditions are met. Full stop.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei went further, accusing Washington of using the moment to deepen regional divisions.
The fact that the US, under these circumstances, keeps fabricating lies to deepen divisions among the countries of the region is one of the consequences of the problems that already exist in our region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added that Tehran will not reopen the Hormuz Strait until the US meets Iran’s demands, regardless of whatever deal it might eventually strike with Oman.
Why the Hormuz Strait matters for oil prices
The strait, through which most of the Middle East’s seaborne oil exports pass, has not functioned normally since late February. Last week fewer than ten ships passed through it daily, while US Central Command says its naval blockade has kept more than 100 ships from reaching Iranian ports. On Monday evening, Britain’s UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported a new incident: an unidentified projectile struck a vessel in the Hormuz Strait, with no reported damage to the ship and no oil spill.
Pressure on the market is compounded by the state of the East West pipeline, knocked out of service for three to five weeks after a drone attack, which further limits alternative export routes that bypass the strait itself.
Oman meeting postponed, no new date set
Srpske novine reported earlier that Oman had postponed the meeting between Iran and the Gulf Arab states, called specifically to address restoring traffic through Hormuz. That meeting, planned for Monday in Salalah, was called off with no new date announced, postponing the only scheduled venue for direct talks between Tehran and its Gulf neighbors on the strait’s future.
Washington’s calculation
While the White House keeps the option of talks on the table, part of the administration is at the same time pursuing an alternative path toward resolving Iran’s nuclear file. Under Washington’s strategy so far, economic pressure on Iran is combined with the military blockade, with the aim of still keeping global fuel prices in check by letting part of the Gulf’s oil through.
The cost of the conflict, in the meantime, has been tallied by the Pentagon’s Inspector General: the total price of the war is estimated at 33.4 billion dollars through June 29, of which 22.3 billion dollars went on munitions spent and 3.7 billion dollars on military equipment lost.
For now, neither side has announced a new date, either for the Oman meeting or for any direct talks between Washington and Tehran. Iran’s conditions, repeated by Rezai and Araghchi without detail on what they actually contain, remain the only obstacle that, according to the White House’s own message, it is up to Tehran itself to remove.
