Trump: We are speaking directly with the Guards, and Iran must surrender

- Midterm elections have absolutely no impact on my thinking regarding Iran

- The Guards: No talks with Americans; diplomatic issues fall under the purview of other entities

- Tehran: We will launch a military strike at the appropriate time to break the naval blockade

- Pakistani government official: Negotiations are still ongoing

With the expiration of the 60-day deadline, and Islamabad’s memorandum of understanding entering a vague phase, or a “coma” as described by Iran, without Tehran and Washington returning to the negotiating table to discuss the nuclear file and lift sanctions, US President Donald Trump announced that he has no specific timeline regarding Iran, stating, “I am not in a hurry.” He pointed out that “there are back channels for direct communication with officials in the Revolutionary Guard,” and asserted that “Iran must raise the white flag and declare surrender.”

Alongside the Guards’ denial of any talks with Americans, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that his country “will escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and the region as a whole if diplomatic efforts fail,” noting a shift in his country’s policy toward relying on offense rather than defense. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry declared that the 60-day period had lost its relevance without the start of negotiations, placing responsibility for the deadlock on Washington, while Pakistani mediation and Qatari diplomatic efforts, along with talks with the Sultanate of Oman regarding Hormuz, continued.

Trump, for his part, emphasized that the United States possesses “a large arsenal of medium-range weapons that can be used in the future if necessary.” He added, “The stockpiles of weapons we have used so far are negligible.”

On his platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote earlier that “the first goal, and it will always remain so, is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon in any form. Thank you for your interest in this matter.”

In Tehran, the Guards announced in a statement published by Tasnim News Agency that “Trump’s claims of conducting behind-the-scenes talks with the Revolutionary Guard are mere illusions.”

It added, “There are no talks between Revolutionary Guard officials and Americans, and diplomatic issues fall under the purview of other entities,” considering that “Trump is trying, through his statements, to temporarily control global oil and energy prices.”

For his part, the senior official stated that his country “has decided to shift from a defensive approach to full-scale offense because efforts to end the war have reached a dead end. We will be ready to make decisions and take difficult steps.”

The official announced that “the United States must implement all provisions of the agreement within a short period of a few weeks to be determined by Iran, which is a precondition for further negotiations,” noting that “mediators will convey the deadline set by Tehran to Washington and regional countries.”

However, he clarified that the Islamabad memorandum stipulated talks over a 60-day period regarding the lifting of sanctions and the nuclear issue, with the possibility of extension if the two sides failed to reach a result.

Baqaei attempted to distinguish between the existence of the 60-day period in the memorandum and considering it a binding deadline for Tehran, stating that the track that was supposed to take place during this period had not even started.

Baqaei denied a report that Washington had used a back channel via the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to communicate with the “Guards” and to confirm that the Iranian military establishment supports the negotiating team.

In this context, the official IRNA news agency quoted the Director General of Legal Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, Bas Bagherpour, as saying that “the memorandum of understanding can be described as being in a coma, and therefore there is still a possibility of reviving it.”

US channel MSN also quoted a Pakistani government official as saying that negotiations between Washington and Tehran are still ongoing, with the aim of opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war.