TEHRAN — U.S. President Donald Trump, who had issued Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to allow all ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz or face bombing of its power plants, walked back his threats before the two-day window closed. In a post on social media, he announced that he had postponed his plans by five days.

In his post published Monday, Trump said he decided to delay the attacks on Iran’s electricity system—actions considered war crimes under international law and illegal under the U.S. Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual—because Iran and the United States have had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities” in West Asia.

Iranian authorities, however, rejected the claim that negotiations between the two countries have taken place.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran will continue its operations against U.S. and Israeli positions in the region until it is certain that the two regimes have regretted their decision to wage war.

“The 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,” he wrote on X.

Qalibaf added that no negotiations have been held with the U.S. “Fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped,” he stated.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said messages were relayed through “friendly” countries over the past several days conveying the United States' desire to hold talks, but there had been no negotiations. 

After Trump’s claims of fruitful talks with Iran, Brent crude, which opened at $114 a barrel on Monday morning, fell to $100. The price began climbing again after Iran’s dismissals.

Iranian media outlets, citing informed sources, have also noted that there is no guarantee Trump will not attack Iran’s power plants, and that if he ultimately abandons such plans, it would likely be due to Iran’s firm threats of retaliation.

After Trump threatened to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure on Saturday, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters responded by warning that it would retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz completely, targeting American companies across the region, and decimating energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf in which the United States holds shares or interests.

When Iran’s South Pars Gas Field was attacked during the third week of the war, the country responded by striking U.S.-linked infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE. Following Iran’s retaliation, Trump claimed ignorance of the initial strikes and said he would ensure that Israel did not attack Iranian energy sites again.

Mohammad Marandi, a former Iranian negotiator, has noted that Trump has made comments suggesting a potential end to the war almost every Monday since the conflict began.

“Every week, when markets open, Trump makes these kinds of statements to drive down oil prices. Even his five-day deadline aligns with the closure of the energy market,” Marandi wrote on X.

“But in reality, there are no negotiations underway, nor does Trump have the capability to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s firm threat has once again forced Trump to back down,” he added.

Iran restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz in early March, allowing only countries not contributing to U.S.-Israeli aggression on its soil to move through. The move caused oil prices to skyrocket, rising significantly from the $67 per barrel seen before February 28, the day the war broke out.

The United States appears to have practically no way of forcing the waterway open. U.S. warships have fled the region, and despite repeated pleas from Trump, no U.S. ally has agreed to send naval assets to help restore the previous order at the Strait of Hormuz. It appears that the only way Trump can lift Iran’s restrictions on the waterway—through which more than 20% of the world’s energy used to pass each day—is through an agreement with Tehran.

Iranians, however, have lost almost all hope and trust in negotiations with the Trump administration. Tehran and Washington were in the middle of nuclear negotiations when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, starting both this war and the previous war in June 2025.

Iranian officials have said they will only stop the current war when they have made sure that the U.S. and Israel would not consider waging war again in a few months’ time.

In subsequent remarks to reporters ahead of a flight on Monday, Trump said he had achieved his goal of overthrowing the Iranian government because “everybody has been killed,” adding that this constituted “automatically a regime change.”

After the U.S. and Israel assassinated Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in their opening strikes, Iran’s Assembly of Experts chose his son, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, to succeed him. Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei had served as an advisor to his father for several years.