Donald Trump says Hormuz to open ‘literally by Aug 5’, but Tehran denies negotiations

NEW YORK: Even as US President Donald Trump warned that he was giving Iran a “last chance before decapitation”, he said that they were talking about opening the Strait of Hormuz “literally by tomorrow”.

“I mean they're going to go quickly, one way or the other. It's not very complex”, he said on Monday at the Oval Office.

"We're talking about the Strait, the opening of the Strait, having it open, literally by tomorrow”, he said, but Iran has denied there were any talks with the US. The contradictory claims leave the gateway to the world for 20 per cent of fossil fuels trapped in uncertainty.

"We are not holding any negotiations with the United States at present”, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said at a news briefing in Tehran.

Speaking a few hours before Trump, he said that except for Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is on a pilgrimage to Iraq, all the negotiators were in Iran.

Trump dismissed it, writing on Truth Social, “Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous” because after they “beg” for a meeting "they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions”. (IANS)

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