President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony for newly sworn-in Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Markway Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House on March 24, 2026 in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla | getty images
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US and Iran were “talking right now” and suggested Tehran was eager to reach a peace deal, although the Islamic republic denied it was in direct talks with Washington.
Trump, speaking in the Oval Office, said he had decided to walk back his recent threat to order strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure “based on the fact that we are negotiating.”
When Trump was asked to clarify his point further, he said, “They’re talking to us and they’re talking intelligently.”
Later Tuesday, the new York TimesQuoting two unidentified officials, it has been reported that America has sent a 15-point plan to Iran to end the war.
It is unclear how widely the plan – distributed through Pakistan – has been disseminated among Iranian officials, the Times reports. According to the newspaper, it is also not clear whether Israel, which is attacking Iran along with America, will support this plan or not.
A day earlier, Trump told reporters that there were “about 15” points of agreement between the US and Iran. Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons was “No. 1, 2 and 3” on that list, he said.
In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said multiple US officials were involved in the talks, name-checking Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
He had earlier said that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner were holding talks with Iranian counterparts on Sunday evening.
Amid a messaging clash between the US and Iran over negotiations, multiple outlets have reported that regional leaders are engaged in behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to help end the war.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said in an ex-post that his country was keen to facilitate talks between the two countries. Trump shared a screenshot of Sharif’s post on his official Truth social account on Tuesday morning.
Asked whether Trump’s post indicated he would accept Pakistan’s offer, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told CNBC, “These are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the United States will not negotiate through the news media.
“As President Trump and his negotiators explore this new possibility for diplomacy, Operation Epic Fury continues unabated to achieve the military objectives set by the Commander in Chief and the Pentagon,” Leavitt said.
In remarks Tuesday afternoon, Trump repeated his claim that the US has already won the war in Iran.
Trump said the main goal of the war was to ensure that Iran did not have nuclear weapons. He said, “We’ve been talking about this and I don’t want to say anything in advance, but they have agreed that they will never have nuclear weapons. They have agreed on that.”
Yet the Trump administration has not backed down from plans to ask Congress to pass a major war-related supplemental funding bill, which reportedly could total $200 billion.
And Tuesday before that, wall street journal It was reported that the Pentagon is preparing a plan to deploy about 3,000 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told CNBC when asked about that report, “All announcements regarding troop deployments will come from the War Department. As we have said, President Trump always has all military options.”