President Donald Trump’s surprising claim this week that talks with Iran were yielding great progress has only raised more confusion over a war whose goals were already unclear. The most basic question: What talks? Iran denied any negotiations were taking place, pledging to fight “until complete victory.
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Here's how to protect yourself'Worst in Show' CES products include AI refrigerators, AI companions and AI doorbellsSoil is the foundation of your garden. Keep it healthy!Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special is too ungodly for many churches. This one welcomed her.Irán e Israel continúan sus ataques mientras se aceleran los esfuerzos diplomáticosLIVE Here's how to protect yourself'Worst in Show' CES products include AI refrigerators, AI companions and AI doorbellsSoil is the foundation of your garden. Keep it healthy!Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special is too ungodly for many churches. This one welcomed her.Irán e Israel continúan sus ataques mientras se aceleran los esfuerzos diplomáticosWorld NewsIranian Red Crescent emergency workers use a bulldozer to clear rubble from a residential building that was hit in an earlier U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 23, 2026. President Donald Trump listens to a reporter during the swearing in for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. Vehicles drive under billboards showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, foreground, and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to him, along a highway in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Iranian Red Crescent emergency workers use a bulldozer to clear rubble from a residential building that was hit in an earlier U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 23, 2026. Iranian Red Crescent emergency workers use a bulldozer to clear rubble from a residential building that was hit in an earlier U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 23, 2026. President Donald Trump listens to a reporter during the swearing in for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. President Donald Trump listens to a reporter during the swearing in for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. Vehicles drive under billboards showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, foreground, and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to him, along a highway in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Vehicles drive under billboards showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, foreground, and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to him, along a highway in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprising claim this week that talks with Iran were yielding great progress has only raised more confusion over Iran denied any negotiations were taking place, pledging to fight “until complete victory.” Pakistan, Egypt and Gulf Arab nations are trying behind the scenes toPush for negotiations. He has talked of degrading or destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, and its ability to threaten neighbors — goals that he has some flexibility in declaring accomplished. A much tougher goal isA reopening of the Strait of Hormuz -- a vital waterway for oil shipments that Iran made virtually impassable when the war began -- is now also a priority, for Trump and the global economy. As Trump talks of engaging with leaders in Iran, he has backed off promoting the Islamic Republic’s collapse. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, continues to say the war aims to help Iranians overthrow the theocracy. Trump claimed that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held talks Sunday with an Iranian leader. He did not say who that was. Reports focused on Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as a possible interlocutor. But Qalibaf quickly denied talks were taking place in a post on X. The U.S. agreed “in principle” to join talks in Pakistan, according to three Pakistani officials, one Egyptian official and a Gulf diplomat, while mediators were still working to convince Iran. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide the details to the media. The Egyptian official said efforts are centered on “trust-building” between the U.S. and Iran, aiming to reach a pause in fighting and a “mechanism” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.Iran’s leadership appears to have remained relatively cohesive, despite weeks of heavy bombardment and the killing of its supreme leader and many top-ranking military figures. But who actually is in charge is not known. The new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, hasn’t been seen or directly heard from since he was named to replace his slain father, Ali Khamenei. Within the Islamic Republic are other centers of power, including the military and the powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as well as political figures like Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian. It’s not certain anyone entering talks with the U.S. would have backing from the military or Guard. In the ongoing war, Iran’s military has conducted strikes based on orders of local commanders, rather than from any political leadership, Araghchi has said. The spokesman of Iran’s top military command, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, vowed on Tuesday that the fighting “will continue until complete victory.” It was a message of defiance to Trump’s claim that Iran was petitioning for peace, but possibly also a warning to anyone within the Iranian leadership not to back down in talks.Trump’s sudden declaration of progress in talks on Monday came just as the deadline was about to run out on an ultimatum he had made over the weekend threatening tounless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran threatened to retaliate against power, water and oil infrastructure across the Gulf. Trump on Monday pushed the deadline back five days and said there’s a “very good chance” a deal could be reached this week. That was a relief to global Trump’s move could signal he’s wary of the war’s possible long-term damage to the U.S. and global economy, though his administration has insisted that any pain from spiking oil prices will quickly be reversed once the war is over. “Trump could be actively seeking an offramp,” the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank, wrote in an analysis. On the other hand, the Soufan Center noted, Trump could be buying time for thousands of Marines heading to the region to arrive. The Marine deployment could be a tactic to pressure Iran on negotiations. But it has also raised speculation that the U.S. may try to seizein the Persian Gulf, which is vital to Iran’s oil network, or carry out an operation to remove enriched uranium from inside Iran. Either would mean a greater escalation and a longer war. Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out. Israel has suggested ground forces could participate in the war.Nuclear negotiations were already taking place when the U.S. and Israel launched their surprise attack on Feb. 28, killing the elder Khamenei in the opening salvos of the bombing campaign. That only deepened Iranian mistrust of Americans in negotiations, especially after Trump’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from a landmark nuclear agreement reached with the United States three years earlier. Iran and the U.S. held negotiations in early 2025, and when a two-month deadline set by Trump ran out, Israel hit Iran in a surprise attack that the U.S. joined in a 12-day war, striking Iranian nuclear facilities and military positions. Trump said Monday that any deal to end the war will entail the U.S. removing Iran’s enriched uranium, which is critical to its disputed nuclear program. Iran refused that demand in the past, insisting it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. A less ambitious goal for talks could be to reach a ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. But Araghchi seemed to reject any partial deal in an interview with Al Jazeera last Wednesday. “We don’t believe in ceasefire. We believe in the end of war ... the end of war in all fronts,” Araghchi said, emphasizing the need for solutions to conflicts throughout the region.Israel has depicted itself as following Trump’s lead, and it seems unlikely to continue with its strikes on Iran if the U.S. declared an end to the war. Still, it has pursued its own war aims beyond the Americans’. Its bombing last week of Iran’s offshore South Pars natural gas field triggered intensified Iranian attacks on the Gulf Arab states, and Trump told Israel to halt such attacks. In a statement late Monday, Netanyahu acknowledged Trump’s diplomatic efforts but said Israel would continue to strike its enemies for the time being. Also, an end to the war on Iran does not mean an end to Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon. There, Israel has seized a new opportunity to try to crush Hezbollah after the militants fired rockets in support of Iran.Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006.Keath is the chief editor for feature stories in the Middle East for The Associated Press. He has reported from Cairo since 2005.
General News War And Unrest Abbas Araghchi Donald Trump Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Ali Khamenei Persian Gulf Iran Government Israel Government Diplomacy Military And Defense Egypt Government International News MIDEAST WARS Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi Iran Politics Steve Witkoff Jared Kushner Pakistan Government Mojtaba Khamenei World News Masoud Pezeshkian Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf Washington News World News Washington News
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