Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday dismissed reports of holding backchannel talks with a top aide to US President Donald Trump, calling such claims "misleading" to sway oil traders and the public.
US media outlet Axios reported that a direct communications channel between Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Araghchi had been reactivated. The report, citing an unnamed US official and a source familiar with the matter, said the revived contact marks the first known direct communication between the two sides since the war began more than two weeks ago.
The Iranian leader was quick to deny such engagement with Washington. "My last contact with Mr. Witkoff was prior to his employer's decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran. Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public," Araghchi wrote on microblogging site X.
He also slammed a recent directive by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to take no prisoners and kill enemy combatants. "When the U.S. Secretary of War declares “no quarter”, he doesn't project strength. He conveys moral bankruptcy and ignorance about law of armed conflict. We advise him to review the Hague Convention and Rome Statute of the ICC, unless he aspires to join Netanyahu as war criminal," Araghchi said.
ALSO READ: Trump Gets Chilly Response From Allies Over Demand On Hormuz
Looking For An Off-Ramp?
As the war with Iran dragged on into its third week and public opinion negative, Trump said his conflict with Tehran will "be wrapped up soon" as the regime has been weakened. "It'll (The War) be wrapped up soon. We're going to have a much safer world," the president told reporters in the White House.
Calling it an "obligation" to stop Tehran from building a nuclear weapon, which the Islamic Republic denies, Trump said stock markets would have crashed had the Iranians attacked with a nuclear device.
"Iran is a shell of itself, it's no longer a bully...it's the bully that got beat up. We beat the crap out of them—and and they deserve that," he added.
Gulf Crisis Worsens
Iran stepped up attacks on energy infrastructure around the Persian Gulf and set a massive gas field ablaze, adding more pressure to an increasingly fraught global fuel supply situation.
Operations were suspended at the Shah natural gas field in the United Arab Emirates while officials assessed damage from a fire touched off by a drone attack on Monday, Bloomberg News reported. An Iraqi oil field and key Emirati port were also targeted by Iranian drones and missiles as the war enters its third week.
ALSO READ: Trump Demands Help From Other Countries To Secure Strait Of Hormuz
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