Trump claims US and Tehran having 'good talks' as drones hit neighbors

President Donald Trump said Monday the United States was having "good talks" with Iran and there was a chance of a deal over their conflict, but warned U.S. strikes would resume if the negotiations failed to deliver.

Washington abruptly suspended a two-week campaign of airstrikes against Iran on Saturday in the president's latest U-turn in the five-month-old conflict.

"We're talking right now," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that Iran wanted to talk "because we've been hitting them very hard."

"We're having good talks,” he said. “I think there's a good chance that something could happen, and if it does, good, if it doesn't, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago."

In contrast to the president's remarks, Tehran appeared to quickly test the pause in the U.S. military campaign, with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq reporting drone attacks Monday.

Saudi Arabia said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, including in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones were launched from Iraq by Iran-backed armed groups, and it reserved the right to respond.

Separately, Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen said they targeted the 745-mile East-West Pipeline carrying oil to Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea port of Yanbu in retaliation for what they said were Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.

Iran said it doesn’t seek to resume peace talks with the U.S., though it would pause its own attacks for as long as Trump's self-imposed ceasefire continues.

Tehran also said it was still in control of the contested Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway for global energy supplies, which Trump has demanded vessels be able to pass through freely.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed to Washington on Monday, where he said he will meet Trump for their first face-to-face talks since the start of their conflict with Iran.

It will be Netanyahu's eighth meeting with Trump since the U.S. president returned to office, and their first since February, right before Israel and the United States launched a joint aerial campaign against Iran.

Oil prices

The end of the U.S. campaign after 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing and Trump's remarks on talks with Tehran sent oil prices tumbling. Brent crude, which briefly ticked above $100 a barrel last week for the first time since May, fell about 8.2% on Monday.

Trump's decision to suspend the campaign reflected advice from his military that the bombing reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a U.S. official and several U.S. media reports.

The U.S. official told Reuters that military commanders advised the president they were running out of targets. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, had expressed concern over the depletion of air munitions, the official said.

Diplomacy

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said Sunday that Trump paused the campaign to allow room for negotiations. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials claimed Iran is "begging for a deal."

But the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a televised news conference Monday that Iran didn’t ask to resume peace talks with the United States.

Messages were still being passed between the sides through mediators and Iran hasn’t forsaken diplomacy, but "reports about Iran requesting negotiations with the U.S. are fabricated," Baghaei said. "This is not in our DNA."

Tehran also said it was still in control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Ships in the Strait

Several Iranian state media outlets cited an "informed source" as saying that Iran turned back six "offending ships" Monday morning that attempted to cross the strait without its permission. One of the vessels, the source said, had "an accident."

"As previously announced, the traffic route in the Strait of Hormuz is the route specified by Iran, and other routes are contaminated and have no way out," the Iranian state media reports quoted the source as saying.

Trump launched his renewed bombing campaign to punish Iran after Tehran fired on ships using a route through the strait that was promoted by the United States, which told vessels to sail close to the coast of Oman.

Iran says ships may pass only through a channel that runs closer to its own coast, which it controls and where it intends to impose transit fees.

The two weeks of renewed U.S. bombing killed scores of people in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south as well as military targets. Iran's return fire against U.S. bases in neighboring Arab states killed four U.S. service members. Iran also struck civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries in what it said was retaliation for U.S. strikes on civilian targets.

Last week Iran's Houthi allies threatened to extend the disruption to global oil supplies to a second major waterway by announcing a blockade of Saudi Arabia's oil industry in the Red Sea, sending oil prices even higher.

The halt to the renewed U.S. bombing campaign leaves no clear indication of what leverage Washington can exert to achieve Trump's aim to break Iran's grip on the strait.

Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in June on a framework for talks meant to take place by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran's nuclear program.

But the sides disputed the meaning of the memorandum's language about the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington insisting it requires Tehran to allow free travel while Iran says it grants it the authority to supervise transit.

Iran aims to formalize its control over the strait in an agreement with Oman, which controls the opposite shore.