Tehran: Iran has strongly rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that a breakthrough on the Strait of Hormuz is near, saying Tehran will not permit any route through the strategic waterway that it has not authorized and warning that US warships could be targeted if tensions escalate, ANI reported.
The remarks came as a fresh round of verbal sparring deepened the gap between Washington’s account of the diplomacy and Tehran’s version of events.
The response was delivered by Mohsen Rezaee, a senior military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, following Trump’s announcement that talks with Tehran could move ahead in two stages, beginning with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and then shifting to Iran’s nuclear programme.
Rezaee rejected that framing and accused Washington of breaking an earlier understanding.
“We will not allow any route other than Iran’s designated route to be established in the Strait of Hormuz,” Rezaee said, according to Iran’s Press TV.
He also alleged that the United States had previously accepted Iran’s arrangements for the strait under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), only to violate the deal later and launch military action without first using the dispute-resolution mechanism.
According to Rezaee, Iran answered those moves with “severe blows” against US forces during the fighting that followed, a response he said demonstrated both Tehran’s missile capabilities and its ability to defend the chokepoint.
His comments stood in direct contrast to Trump’s upbeat public assessment that negotiations were advancing quickly.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said the first stage of talks would focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with a second phase aimed at what he called the “denuclearisation” of Iran.
“The first phase is the opening of the Strait, the second phase will be the denuclearisation… Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Trump also portrayed the talks as Tehran’s final opportunity to strike a deal, saying Washington had held back a planned military strike after appeals from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iran to let diplomacy continue.
Tehran, however, has flatly rejected that account.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has denied that Tehran is involved in either direct or indirect negotiations with Washington, insisting that no bilateral talks are underway. That denial has become a central point of contention as Trump continues to describe engagement with Iran as active and ongoing.
The latest exchange shows the two sides are still far apart. Trump is optimistic about talks on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear programme, while Tehran has rejected the US account and said it is ready to defend the key waterway.