Iranian Foreign Minister Says US–Iran Negotiation Messages Still Ongoing

Iran’s top diplomat said Thursday that messages between Tehran and Washington are still being sent through intermediaries, days after state-run media said that Iran halted negotiations to end hostilities.

In a statement released through semi-official news agency IRNA, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying that “indirect messages continue to be exchanged, including recent communications concerning the need to prevent an Israeli attack on Beirut.”

Iranian state-run media earlier this week said that the Islamic regime cut off its talks with the United States, as Israel and Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah launched strikes at one another over the past weekend. Meanwhile, the United States and Iran have traded strikes this week amid a tenuous ceasefire.

Responding to those reports, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the negotiations are still ongoing and that reports saying otherwise are false. He also said this week that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and representatives for Hezbollah, pushing both parties to end the fighting.

Meanwhile, it has been roughly week since U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire in the conflict by another 60 days as negotiations continue.

The series of strikes by the U.S. and Iranian militaries earlier this week has raised fresh doubts about the ceasefire, but Trump has downplayed their significance.

“It’s a different part of the world,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening. “You know, I’d say in that part of the world, a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”

A naval blockade of Iranian ports, announced in mid-April days after the initial ceasefire announcement, continues. U.S. Central Command, which oversees the war, said Thursday that more than 127 commercial vessels have been redirected, six have been disabled, and six humanitarian ships have been allowed to pass.

All the while, the strategic Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf with the wider ocean has been effectively shut down. Oil and gas prices on Thursday remained significantly elevated compared to before the Iran war was initiated in late February.

On Thursday, Trump criticized Democrats, as well as some Republicans, who voted in favor of a symbolic war powers resolution to halt U.S. military activity against Iran. He said on Truth Social that the vote was “meaningless” and that four Republicans who voted for the measure are “grandstanders” who should be “ashamed of themselves.”

The vote came as the inspectors general for the Department of State, Department of War, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a joint statement that their offices will start a review of the U.S. military strikes against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury. They said that the war has lasted more than 60 days, at which point a congressional War Powers Resolution vote is normally triggered.

Iran’s top leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, released a statement through social media platform X on Thursday claiming the United States is still engaging in “hybrid warfare” against Iran. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named to the leadership position in March.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.