Iran said Monday, the 13th day of a two-week ceasefire, that it still has no plans to participate in a new round of negotiations with the U.S.
In a press conference on Monday morning, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, “So far, we have not made any decisions regarding the next round of negotiations,” adding that Iran cannot ignore the “very costly experience” of the past year in which the U.S. “betrayed diplomacy twice” and carried out attacks against Iran during negotiations.
“We see no signs that the U.S. is serious about advancing diplomacy. Multiple signs point to the exact opposite. The U.S. side constantly changes its demands,” he said.
In an interview with the New York Post on Monday morning, President Donald Trump dismissed Iran’s statements that it has no plans yet to participate, saying that “we’re supposed to have the talks.”
“I would assume at this point nobody’s playing games,” Trump added, telling the Post that Vice President J.D. Vance and the U.S. delegation will land in Pakistan tonight for talks. Trump said that he would be willing to meet with Iranian leadership if progress is made.
“I have no problem meeting them,” he said. “If they want to meet, and we have some very capable people, but I have no problem meeting them.”
In a Monday morning Truth Social post, Trump denied fighting the Iran War on behalf of Israel, saying that “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did.”
Trump’s comments follow comments made on March 2 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he said.
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation said Monday that passenger flights at Imam Khomeini International Airport and Mehrabad Airport in Tehran would resume today, with 10 other airports across the country scheduled to reopen on Saturday.
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Spruance attacked and seized the Iranian-flagged container ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday night as it sailed from China to Iran, disabling the vessel by firing at its engine room.
“The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
No tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz Sunday.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters said Monday that following the U.S. attack on the Touska, Iran’s armed forces had been “prepared to deliver a decisive response,” but that the military action was being delayed due to the presence of family members of the ship’s crew on board. “Once the safety of the families and crew members is fully ensured, Iran’s Armed Forces will carry out the necessary action against” the U.S. military, the statement said.
Israel continued its land grab in Lebanon, one day after publishing new maps of its territorial expansion goals that included Lebanon’s Qana gas field, despite Lebanon’s exclusive rights under a 2022 U.S.–brokered maritime deal.
Demolitions and explosions continued in Lebanon’s southern villages, with bulldozers razing infrastructure across the area. Haaretz reported that Israel’s mass destruction operates under an internal IDF policy called “Silver Plow,” with civilian contractors demolishing structures across Lebanese villages. Targets include homes, schools, and public buildings. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said last month that all border villages would be demolished along the lines of “the model in Gaza” with the stated aim of preventing residents from returning.
The price of Brent Crude rose above $95 per barrel on Monday while gas prices remained elevated. AAA reported the national average price of gas at $4.04.
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