Iran reports halting talks with mediators, but Trump says talks continue

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran halts communications with mediators about extending deal ceasefire exist war Two semi-official Iranian news agencies reported on Tuesday that Iran was in talks with the United States and Israel, but President Donald Trump disputed the claim and said talks were continuing.

The report by Fars and Tasnim news agencies, which are believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, came after Tensions rise Israel is engaged in a separate but related battle in Lebanon with the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.

The story continues below.

A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told The Associated Press that Iran had no communication at all on Tuesday after saying it needed to enforce a ceasefire in Lebanon to continue talks.

In other developments, the U.S. military said it fired a missile to stop another tanker trying to reach an Iranian port in violation of a U.S. blockade. U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that it was the seventh ship intercepted by the military while trying to break the blockade.

The Botswana-flagged merchant ship M/T Lexie was intercepted by an aircraft firing Hellfire missiles into its cabin after the crew ignored repeated warnings for 24 hours, the post said.

Trump called reports that talks had stalled “false and wrong.”

“Conversations between us have been ongoing, four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago and today,” Trump said in a social media post. “Where they will lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘Now is the time for you to make a deal somehow.'”

Secretary of State of the United States Marco Rubio He made no mention of the reported communications outage while testifying at a congressional hearing in Washington. On the contrary, he sounds optimistic about nuclear dimension progress in negotiations, while warning that there was no guarantee of an “acceptable deal”.

Iran has been trying to increase pressure on Trump to negotiate a ceasefire in Iran’s war and loosen the Islamic Republic’s grip on the country. Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gas and other commodities that typically pass through it. Trump is likely to then urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or slow the advance of his forces, which are now deeper into Lebanon than at any time in more than a quarter-century.

The conflicts are increasingly intertwined as Iran insists that any potential truce in the war must also quell fighting in Lebanon.

Israel and the United States insist the fighting in Lebanon is separate from the Iran war negotiations.

At the same time, year-on-year inflation Iran Economic growth in May reached its fastest pace since World War II, underscoring the economic pain faced by ordinary Iranians. While the United States is eager to loosen the Islamic Republic’s control over the strait, through which a fifth of peacetime oil and gas trade passes, Iran faces economic challenges as its oil-backed economy remains under a U.S. naval blockade.

Economic pressure triggered nationwide protests in Iran in 2017-2018 when food prices rose spark demonstrations More than 20 people died and hundreds of people were arrested. The next year, government-subsidized gasoline price increases sparked protests, More than 300 deaths were reported.

then came Protest against the collapse of values At the beginning of the year, the value of Iran’s currency, the rial, increased. They were the most violent demonstrations to shake the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and the chaotic years that followed. Iran’s theocracy cracked down on demonstrators in response to January protests Killed more than 7,000 peopleaccording to activist estimates.

Now, even Hardliners hold gun disposal seminar Experts say new demonstrations could emerge if people find themselves unable to feed their families.

“I have no doubt that if Trump leaves (without a formal peace deal with Iran)… we will probably see a situation similar to January in late summer due to the economic and social situation,” analyst Mohsen Jalilvand said in a video posted by Iran’s Fararu news website.

Iran’s central bank said the consumer price index, which measures a basket of goods and services, reached 77.2% in May compared with the same period last year. The bank added that the rate was 8.5% higher than in April. The inflation rate for daily and general needs such as medicines, taxi fares, tobacco fees and communication fees increased by 113.8% compared with the previous year.

Iran’s private economic think tank Bamda Economic Institute described the current figures as “unprecedented since World War II.” Iran’s central bank failed to acknowledge the significance of these figures.

The previous record was in 1942. During the war, Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran and seized its railways, disrupting food supplies. Food scarcity, combined with poor harvests, triggered hyperinflation and famine. Starvation and outbreaks of typhus resulted in many deaths.

Air strikes this year have severely damaged Iran’s businesses and oil industry. Meanwhile, the U.S. blockade has been targeting Iranian crude oil shipments as it attempts to access international markets, its main source of hard revenue. Even after the fighting stopped, businesses struggled and tax revenues were suppressed.

In 2015, the rial traded at 32,000 rials per US dollar and now trades at 1.7 million rials per US dollar.

“Our prices will definitely be higher,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned in May. “We are fighting and we have to accept this difficulty.”

Tehran economist Saeed Leilaz warned in an interview with The Associated Press that annual inflation in Iran could reach 80%.

He said, “Iranian society cannot tolerate an annual inflation rate exceeding 25%.”

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran. Magdi reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Amer Madani and Konstantin Tolopin in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.