Overview
- Trump, in a Monday Truth Social post, said the U.S. and Iran held “very good and productive” talks and that he ordered a five-day halt to planned strikes on Iranian power plants.
- Iran’s Fars News Agency countered that there had been no direct or indirect contact with Washington, and the foreign ministry cast the statement as an effort to buy time.
- U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament’s Liaison Select Committee that contacts between Trump’s representatives in the region and Iranian officials did occur.
- Iran’s parliamentary speaker later repeated that no negotiations had taken place, leaving even the existence of talks in dispute.
- Media reaction turned sharp as Wall Street Journal editor-at-large Gerard Baker compared Trump’s messaging to Saddam Hussein’s spokesman “Baghdad Bob,” a nickname tied to rosy but false war claims.