Fresh US-Iran talks are ‘last chance’ for Tehran to avoid war escalating, Trump says

US president expects negotiations to begin in next day or two but Iran says it is not reviving talks with Washington Middle East crisis live – latest updates New talks between Washington and Tehran are the “last chance” for Iran to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of US strikes on the country, Donald Trump said on Monday. Trump said he expected negotiations to begin in the next day or two to reopen the strait of Hormuz and create a pathway for Iran to address the US’s concerns about its nuclear programme. “The first phase is the opening of the straits. Esmail Baghaei denied claims by Trump that talks between the two sides covering all the major disputes between them could restart as early as Monday. “We are not currently negotiating with the United States,” he said. Trump claimed he had held off from launching the biggest strike on any country “since world war two” over the weekend after Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, rang him to urge diplomacy. He said maps had been exchanged by the two sides.

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Scoop News DeskIran · Published Monday, August 3, 2026 at 7:36 PM UTCUpdated Monday, August 3, 2026 at 8:21 PM UTC

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In a sign of the pressure Tehran diplomats face, a statement from the Assembly of Experts, the body of clerics that elects the supreme leader, warned against investing any trust in the US, saying: “Hope for understanding and agreement with this bullying regime will lead nowhere.” However, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said he believed the “memorandum of understanding would prove to be the centre of gravity of our foreign relations in the future”.