Iran keeps diplomatic channel open as Trump rules out strike today

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran has not closed the window of diplomacy and that messages are still being passed to the United States through intermediaries. Negotiations over the war have appeared to stall for weeks.

Baghaei, speaking to a German broadcaster according to state media, said the United States appears to persist in unilateral demands. He added that Trump and U.S. officials repeatedly use the phrase “complete surrender,” which he said no Iranian accepts.

“No. There will not be a strike today.”

Concerns are rising among Iranians about a possible return to all-out war as Israel and the United States face elections in the coming days.

Asked whether he planned to launch an attack on Iran, President Donald Trump initially suggested it would be foolish to telegraph such a move. He then said: “No. There will not be a strike today.”

At the same time, Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, was flying over the Strait of Hormuz. He asserted that more than 3,000 commercial vessels have transited the waterway with U.S. military support over the last six months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his warning that Iran or its proxies could attack ahead of Tuesday’s close elections to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence. “The IDF is ready both to defend and to strike,” he said in a video from a visit to an anti-ballistic missile battery.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to resume sharing them.