Trump claims Iran nuclear talks are going effectively as Tehran denies a deal

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The fog of battle often refers to maddening confusion about what is going on on the battlefield.

However proper now now we have the fog of peace talks : Are they actual, are they going wherever, and which aspect is telling the reality?

It’s clear that President Trump, insisting he can finish the battle with Iran every time he desires, is in search of an exit ramp to declare victory and get out.

WINNING THE BATTLES, LOSING THE WAR? AMERICA MUST DEFINE THE ENDGAME IN IRAN

It’s simply as clear that the theocratic dictatorship–not less than the leaders who survived the assaults that killed the ayatollah and plenty of others–are digging of their heels. They may declare victory only for surviving the army onslaught that has decimated their navy and air drive.

When Trump stated there have been back-channel talks–granting a five-day delay on threats to obliterate its power services–the Iranians flatly denied it. Some distinguished pundits doubted Trump. However then Tehran stated yeah, effectively, there have been some secret contacts .

Now now we have starkly totally different accounts of what’s happening.

Trump says the talks have been "excellent." The opposite day, in actual fact, he depicted the mullahs as making a significant concession.

<source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/343/192/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/686/384/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="192" width="343"><source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/672/378/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/1344/756/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/931/523/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/1862/1046/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"><source media="(min-width: 1280px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/720/405/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/1440/810/president-donald-trump-air-force-one-03-23-2026-palm-beach-fox-news.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="405" width="720"> President Donald Trump speaks with the media earlier than boarding Air Power One, Monday, March 23, 2026, at Palm Seaside Worldwide Airport in West Palm Seaside, Fla. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photograph)

The Iranians have given the U.S. "a really large current, price an amazing sum of money," Trump stated. He was cagey about it, however revealed below questioning by CBS’s Ed O’Keefe that it concerned the stream of oil and the Strait of Hormuz.

On the identical time, Iranian army spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari taunted the administration in a video: "Has the extent of your inside battle reached the purpose the place you might be negotiating with yourselves?"

"Don't name your defeat an settlement," he stated.

And for good measure: "Somebody like us won't ever come to phrases with somebody such as you. Not now, not ever."

TRUMP SAYS US, ISRAEL SHATTERED IRANIAN MILITARY CAPABILITIES, PRESSES LEADERS TO SURRENDER: 'CRY UNCLE'

Now a few of that is undoubtedly performed for home consumption. However the two sides sound like they couldn’t be farther aside.

The president has delivered a flurry of combined messages on the Strait of Hormuz, the slender passageway the place an Iranian blockade has choked off one-fifth of the world’s oil visitors. He has stated that the state of affairs will work itself out. He has stated our European allies (who refused to affix our effort to intervene) ought to resolve this because the U.S. doesn’t depend on the strait. And he has additionally stated that opening Hormuz is a high American precedence.

Iran, which has sprinkled the strait with mines , advised the U.N. that the waterway is open to any nation not backing the U.S. and Israeli assaults. However different nations, and their insurance coverage corporations, are reluctant to ship billion-dollar tankers into such troubled waters.

<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/672/378/oil-tanker-in-strait-of-hormuz-iran-war-fox-news-001.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/1344/756/oil-tanker-in-strait-of-hormuz-iran-war-fox-news-001.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/931/523/oil-tanker-in-strait-of-hormuz-iran-war-fox-news-001.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/03/1862/1046/oil-tanker-in-strait-of-hormuz-iran-war-fox-news-001.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> The Callisto tanker sits anchored because the visitors is down within the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israeli battle with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Benoit Tessier / Reuters)

The deadlock is hurting the president right here at dwelling, the place hovering oil prices have boosted gasoline costs and tanked the inventory market, shrinking the worth of all these 401Ks. When Trump introduced the bombing pause Monday, the market snapped again for a day. If there’s one factor Wall Road hates, it’s uncertainty.

Regardless of signaling that the battle is virtually over as a result of "we’ve gained," Trump simply dispatched not less than 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne to the Center East, together with the usTripoli, carrying 2,200 Marines.

In the meantime, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth has been enjoying the dangerous cop, vowing if there’s no deal "to destroy the enemy as viciously as doable."

What’s equally unclear is who we’re speaking to, with Pakistan enjoying the middleman function. Trump has talked about regime change, although there appears no probability of that, and there’s chatter about doing enterprise with the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Ghalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guard commander who at occasions has taken a diplomatic strategy with the West.

However with so many leaders killed and Ayatollah Khamenei’s son in hiding, nobody is aware of how a lot affect Ghalibaf, a failed presidential candidate, nonetheless has.

Simply yesterday, Ghalibaf, invoking the Israeli prime minister , warned the administration in opposition to sacrificing American troopers for "Netanyahu’s delusions," in keeping with al-Jazeera. That hardly sounds conciliatory.

What’s extra, the Iranians are famously tough to barter with, going again on guarantees and transferring the goalposts. Simply ask Jimmy Carter.

Trump tore up the Obama administration’s nuke deal with the Iranians when he first took workplace, and now says he desires an settlement wherein they surrender the pursuit of nuclear weapons. That's extraordinarily unlikely, though the U.S. assaults final June and this month have clearly crippled their efforts.

My sense is that Trump doesn’t wish to bomb Iran’s oil and gasoline services, which might clearly prolong the battle and widen a battle that has already unfold to the encompassing Arab international locations. Nor does he wish to be seen as backing down. No marvel he’s postponed a showdown.

WHO ACTUALLY RUNS IRAN RIGHT NOW? THE KEY POWER PLAYERS AS TRUMP CLAIMS TALKS TO 'TOP' OFFICIAL

"President Trump doesn't bluff and he's ready to unleash hell," White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated yesterday.

The Iranians don’t need a momentary pause within the battle, unnamed officers advised the New York Instances, out of concern that the U.S. and Israel would use the time to rebuild their forces for additional airstrikes.

Iran’s solely actual weapon proper now could be drones, a number of of which have brought about injury in Israel, whereas others are aimed toward U.S. military bases within the area. One drone sparked an enormous hearth on the Kuwaiti airport.

A report by the state broadcaster, Press TV, confirms that Iran gained’t settle for the U.S. proposal for a cease-fire. In its counter-offer, the dictatorship would additionally maintain sole management of the Strait of Hormuz.

Amongst different calls for, in keeping with Press TV: Ensures that the assaults on Iran gained’t be began up once more, and the cost of battle damages and reparations. Iran desires any deal prolonged to Hezbollah, its Lebanese proxy, which fired rockets at Israel when the battle started, triggering an invasion of southern Lebanon.

President Donald Trump speaks through the swearing in for Homeland Safety Secretary Markwayne Mullin within the Oval Workplace of the White Home, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP Photograph)

One other state media outlet, Fars News Agency , quoted a supply as saying of a cease-fire: "It's not logical to enter into such a course of with those that violate the settlement."

The president has lashed out on the media for portray a relentlessly detrimental image of a battle that has largely been an American triumph. However it seems that protecting the endgame — if that’s what that is — is equally difficult.

In the mean time, it seems like Trump desires a deal greater than Iran, given the battle’s unpopularity at dwelling and its damage to the economy . For an America First candidate who ran in opposition to overseas wars, the prospect of an extended, Iraq-style quagmire can be the worst doable consequence.

"Is the U.S. Repeating the Errors That Led to Perpetually Wars?" the Wall Road Journal requested yesterday.

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However the protection of the most recent rhetorical sniping precisely displays the vagueness of a course of that will not need to be known as negotiations.

It's, above all, a blinding fog.

Howard Kurtz is a media and political analyst and the previous host of FOX Information Channel's MediaBuzz . Primarily based in Washington, D.C., he joined the community in 2013 and frequently seems on Particular Report with Bret Baier and The Story with Martha MacCallum amongst different applications.