Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran Was Almost Up. Then He Found an Offramp.

 

Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran Was Almost Up. Then He Found an Offramp.

 

President Trump postponed his threat to strike power plants in Iran, citing “productive conversations” with the Iranians. But officials said the talks were in an early stage and not substantive.

 

Tyler Pager David E. SangerFarnaz Fassihi

By Tyler PagerDavid E. Sanger and Farnaz Fassihi

Tyler Pager and David E. Sanger reported from Washington and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/us/politics/trump-iran-gas-oil-strait.html

March 23, 2026

 

President Trump seized on initial contacts between Iranian and American officials to back away on Monday from his threat to strike power plants in Iran, declaring that the countries had begun “productive conversations” for the first time since the war began more than three weeks ago.

 

Iranian officials publicly denied that any negotiations about terms to end the war were underway, and American officials said the contacts were in a very early stage and not substantive.

 

But Mr. Trump used the opening of even an early dialogue as an offramp from the threat he issued Saturday to attack Iran’s power plants in retribution for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had vowed not to capitulate, and the 48-hour deadline Mr. Trump had set would have expired on Monday.

 

Mr. Trump said he would now extend his deadline to Friday to give the talks time to proceed, setting off a flurry of diplomacy by a number of nations seeking to nurture the talks. It remained unclear, though, how seriously the White House was taking the potential for a breakthrough in a conflict that has seen both sides escalate for weeks.

 

“We’re doing a five-day period,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday about his pause on hitting Iranian power plants, targets that are forbidden under most circumstances under the Geneva Conventions. “We’ll see how that goes, and if it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”

 

Even as Mr. Trump retreated from one military option, U.S. and Israeli officials said they were continuing to carry out other strikes against Iran and more American military assets were headed to the region. Officials said Mr. Trump was still weighing more aggressive operations, including one to seize Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, and another to send ground forces into Iran to secure highly enriched uranium.

 

Mr. Trump on Monday provided few details of the conversations with Iran beyond saying Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, were leading the negotiations. He said they were communicating directly with one of Iran’s leaders, without naming the person. American and Iranian officials familiar with the conversations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Mr. Witkoff has had direct communication with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in recent days.

 

The president said the United States was still demanding an end to Iranian nuclear enrichment and elimination of all of the country’s uranium stockpiles that could be used to one day make a bomb, terms that Iran had previously rejected. It was the breakdown of diplomatic negotiations between Mr. Kushner, Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Araghchi that led to the United States and Israel launching strikes against Iran at the end of February.

 

Iranian officials denied Monday that they were negotiating with the United States, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, wrote on social media that Mr. Trump’s comments were an attempt to “escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”

 

In interviews, four Iranian officials said that the messages passed in the past few days through intermediaries and in direct conversations with the Americans were essentially probes on how to de-escalate the conflict, with the goal of averting a spiraling escalation, including attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

 

The officials said that Mr. Araghchi told Mr. Witkoff that Iran was not interested in a temporary cease-fire and wanted a sustainable peace deal, with guarantees that the United States and Israel would not attack it again. The officials said the Iranians also sought specific economic sanctions relief from Washington, a topic that, in negotiations before the war, American officials said would only happen after Iran delivered on its nuclear and other commitments in any agreement.

 

But Mr. Trump’s characterization of these as “productive conversations” seemed to overstate the current state of the talks.

 

Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said the Iranians would not engage in a high-level meeting before knowing that the United States was stepping away from its “maximalist” demands.

 

“Not attacking energy infrastructure is a low bar,” he said. “The terms of a cease-fire, or an agreement that would resolve the longer-term problems including the fate of the stockpile or reopening of the strait — none of those things are anywhere close to the finish line right now.”

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that he spoke with Mr. Trump on Monday and that Mr. Trump believed it was possible to “leverage” their military achievements against Iran to “realize the objectives of the war in an agreement.”

 

But Mr. Netanyahu, whose strategy has sometimes been at odds with Mr. Trump’s in recent weeks, made it clear he had no intention of letting up. “We are smashing the missile program and the nuclear program, and we continue to deal severe blows to Hezbollah.” He revealed that Israel recently “eliminated two more nuclear scientists” in Iran.

 

Arab countries in the Persian Gulf decided they did not want to act as mediators as long as Iran continued to attack their countries, but several other countries including Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt have offered assistance, though it remains unclear if there are any mediating partners involved.

 

Turkey and Pakistan have floated ideas for in-person meetings between U.S. and Iranian officials. One proposal calls for a meeting between Mr. Araghchi, Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner while another suggests Vice President JD Vance meets with Mr. Ghalibaf. Officials said none of the meetings have been scheduled.

 

 

“These are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the U.S. will not negotiate through the press,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House.”

 

For Mr. Trump, the prospect of negotiations allows him to buy time to try reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to extract himself from a box of his own construction. On Saturday night, Mr. Trump said if Iran did not open the strait within 48 hours, the United States would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.

 

After he issued his threat, it became clear that if he attacked Iran’s electrical infrastructure, the retaliation would take place against Gulf allies who are already trying to keep the war from spreading. But if he backed away from his threat, some officials around him feared he would be conveying weakness to the Iranians.

 

Already on Monday, Iranian officials said Mr. Trump’s announcement was evidence of the United States giving in. “Trump, out of fear of Iran’s response, backed down from his 48-hour ultimatum,” the Iranian state broadcaster, IRIB, said.

 

Mr. Trump is facing increasing domestic and economic pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The war’s global fallout has seen the price of oil and gas shoot up as much as 40 percent since late February, a crisis that is now worse than the oil shocks in 1973 and 1979 combined, according to the head of the International Energy Agency.

 

Mr. Trump’s statement about talks with Iran immediately reduced energy prices somewhat, but it was unclear how long that could last without tangible progress toward ending the war. The president has repeatedly given optimistic assessments that temporarily eased market jitters, only for prices to rise again.

 

Mr. Trump on Monday promised the Strait of Hormuz would be open “very soon” and would be “jointly controlled.”

 

“Maybe me? Maybe me,” he said when asked who would control the key waterway. “Me and the ayatollah. Whoever the ayatollah is.”

 

Ronen Bergman contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.

 

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.

 

David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.

 

Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization. She also covers Iran and has written about conflict in the Middle East for 15 years.