TEHRAN – U.S. President Donald Trump has spent the past few days speaking about supposed negotiations, which he claims are going "very good." Iranians, however, say no such talks have taken place. According to Iranian officials, the president has only relayed a list of maximalist demands through intermediaries—demands that Tehran firmly rejected.

Earlier, a political source told the Tehran Times that Trump was using talk of negotiations to "deceive" Iranians. Now, a security source has told Press TV that Tehran views Washington’s overtures via intermediaries as a ploy to escalate tensions.

"Just like the two previous rounds of negotiations, the United States has no genuine intention to engage in meaningful dialogue," the source said.

The Trump administration has entered into nuclear negotiations with Iran twice over the span of nine months. In both instances, it used the discussions as a smokescreen, launching attacks in the midst of diplomatic processes—once in June 2025 and again in February 2026.

While Trump has told the American public that his goal is to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, experts suggest the true objective behind both military actions has been to topple the Islamic Republic. In the opening strikes of its ongoing war—now in its fourth week—the U.S. and Israel assassinated the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in a strike on his Tehran office. Analysts say the two regimes believed that following the assassination, the Iranian government would collapse within days. Instead, the system has replaced all its assassinated officials and launched unprecedented retaliatory measures against the U.S. and Israel, including relentless attacks on American bases in the region, heavy strikes on Israeli positions in the occupied territories, and the restriction of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

According to the source speaking to Press TV, Washington has been pursuing negotiations through various diplomatic channels, putting forward proposals that Tehran views as "excessive" and disconnected from the reality of America's failures on the battlefield.

"Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met," the source said. The source added that Iran has communicated to the U.S., through two regional countries, five conditions for ending the war. These include: a complete halt to "aggression and assassinations" by the enemy; the establishment of concrete mechanisms to ensure the war is not reimposed on the Islamic Republic; guaranteed and clearly defined payment of war damages and reparations; the conclusion of the war across all fronts and for all Resistance groups involved throughout the region; and recognition that Iran's exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz is its natural and legal right.

Iran will not enter negotiations until Washignton has accepted these five conditions, the source added.

"The end of the war will occur when Iran decides it should end, not when Trump envisions its conclusion," it added.

Since February 28, various Iranian officials have stated that they are prepared to continue fighting for months on end. They have said that while they possess a vast arsenal of missiles and drones in storage, they are also actively manufacturing weapons as they are used against U.S. and Israeli positions.

Iran also holds additional cards it has yet to play, including the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with the help of its powerful ally, Ansarullah, in Yemen. Such a move would further drive up energy prices worldwide, including inside the United States. Yemen has said it has already decided to enter the war, though the timing has not yet come.

Despite clear losses and miscalculations, the Trump administration may be preparing for a ground invasion, with analysts pointing to Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf as the primary targets. Such invasion plans are considered extremely unlikely to succeed and would likely result in heavy U.S. casualties, further complicating Trump’s domestic troubles. Trump’s war against Iran has been deeply unpopular with the American public since it began.