Iran’s military on March 25 dismissed the idea of negotiating with the United States to end the war, as Tehran launched fresh missile and drone attacks on Israel and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf, signaling no sign of de-escalation of the conflict.
Strikes overnight targeted multiple sites in Israel, while Iranian attacks on Gulf energy facilities and Tehran’s continued chokehold on key oil shipping routes signaled no immediate end in sight to the war.
A spokesman for Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters—which oversees coordination between Iran’s regular armed forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—rejected the assertion that Tehran was negotiating to end the war.
“Our first and last word has been, is, and will always be: someone like us will not come to terms with someone like you,” spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said in remarks broadcast on state television and carried by the IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency.
A Turkish official said that Turkey is acting as an intermediary in efforts towards a diplomatic resolution of the conflict.
Harun Armagan, vice chair of foreign affairs for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, said that Turkey “is playing a role passing messages” between the United States and Iran to encourage de-escalation and direct negotiations.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on March 24 that Washington was currently in negotiations with Tehran. The president said that his son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff are involved in the talks, along with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We’re in negotiations right now,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have a number of people doing it. And the other side, I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal.”
Later during the same Oval Office news conference, Trump said that Iran had made an energy-related concession to the United States, and suggested that it signaled Washington was dealing with the “right people” in Tehran.
“They’re going to make a deal,” Trump said. “They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money. I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.”
Trump said the concession was oil- and gas-related and later said it was “related to the flow and to the Strait [of Hormuz].”
“What it showed me is that we’re dealing with the right people,” the president said.
Since the start of the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz, which connects oil-rich nations around the Persian Gulf to the broader ocean and handles approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil shipments, has effectively been shut down by Iran.
Trump had also said during the news conference that Iran had agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons. He added that “we’re in a good bargaining position” and said Iran is mostly “defenseless.”
“We’re way ahead of schedule, and again, they have no navy, they have no air force, or missile protection,” he said.
Most of Tehran’s missile launches have been taken out by the U.S. military, he said.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said in a March 23 post on X that “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”
Iran, Israel Strikes Continue
Iran and Israel continued to exchange airstrikes on March 25.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a post on X that the air force had struck two sites in the heart of Iran, which produced cruise missiles.
“The targeted sites operated under the command of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and were used by the regime to develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, enabling the rapid destruction of targets at sea and on land,” the IDF said, according to a translation.
“The significant strikes caused extensive damage to the cruise missile array and constitute another layer in deepening the damage to the regime’s military production infrastructure.”
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported that the IRGC had carried out a series of attacks against Israel, including sites in Tel Aviv, Kiryat Shmona, and Bnei Brak.
Iran also continued its barrage against the Gulf states.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said it had destroyed at least eight drones that were targeting the country’s oil-rich eastern province.
Kuwait said it shot down multiple drones. One drone hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire, the General Civil Aviation Authority said.
The Associated Press and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
At some point the Europeans and the neighboring Middle East countries are going to come to the conclusion that the Iran regime is going to have to be totally eliminated, and that the price to be paid for getting it done is steep but mandatory. These Iranian mutts are never going to concede anything, and as long as they exist the world is in danger of catastrophic events.
WITH HOW Islamified many of those EU nations are, i just don’t see it.
To the Islamists and their useful idiots catastrophic events are equal to “everything going according to plan”. If they all die arranging humanity’s complete destruction they will have achieved the goal of their underlying inspiration.
Hell all the work is done they have lost their defense systems, all that needs to be done now mopping up and liquidating the fanatics!
You can’t negotiate with fanatics, they must be eliminated and a US sanctioned government put in place.
“You can’t negotiate with fanatics”, As we see proof everyday with the treasonous, destructive, dishonorable, lying, self-serving, Hate filled Democrats in the U.S. Congress.
EVEN WHEN we give them what they want, they just KEEP MOVING the ‘goal posts’.
As it is never enough.
You can negotiate to pay them before they kill you.
On a different topic. If you are White, Asians, Hispanic, and even middle eastern and anybody who is not black – you ARE justified to feel discriminated by Blacks Americans because you are – and you have every reason not to like black America. I judge people individually but as a whole, I have judged BLACK AMERICA for the content of their character – and have learned and experienced most to be highly racist, criminal, and not trustworthy as a whole and I didn’t grow up feeling like this strongly about it – I have experienced abuse, racism and have been victimized by black Americans an abuse so great that I have never experienced from any other group and I’m Hispanic not even white. Can’t imagine what they go through. All I keep seeing is black Americans robbing, looting, hurting, and abusing anybody who is not black and teaching hate of America, and trying to change its history to the point that it is delusional. People start calling it out. you don’t have to keep taking this abuse from the black community and don’t be afraid of the word racist when used by most racist black Americans – understand they use it as a weapon to intimidate. the black community has proven they have been profiled correctly but I will continue to judge people individually as I meet them. I feel sorry for the very small percentage that does the right thing but as for the rest, I’m sorry, I don’t want anything to do with.. period