US Delays Strikes After Alleged Talks, Iran Denies Any Negotiations

US President Donald Trump has delayed the strikes announced on Saturday after alleged negotiations with Iran, but Iran has denied any claims of talks and has continued to bombard Israel with missiles and drones.

On Saturday, Trump threatened to strike Iranian energy sites if they did not open the Strait of Hormuz within the following 48 hours, but his threat resulted in a backfire. Iran threatened to strike energy sites and other crucial infrastructure across the Gulf, endangering oil, natural gas, and desalination facilities across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and other Middle Eastern nations.

Trump quickly faced strong backlash for the threat, which risked escalating the conflict into a full-scale war– attacking energy sites would make almost any target fair game, shifting away from a military-focused conflict.

Stocks were also set to plunge on Monday, with oil prices set to jump significantly. Asian markets, which open ahead of American ones, plummeted in the early hours of Monday.

Then, yesterday, just hours before his self-imposed ultimatum passed, Trump announced that his administration had just had very productive negotiations with Iran, permitting the US to delay the threat by an additional five days. Trump confirmed at least 15 different agreement points that the two sides had negotiated, allowing for the delay.

Therefore, when markets opened on Monday, oil dropped by more than 10%, and indexes like the Dow and S&P 500 soared by 1.35% and 1.15%, respectively. Despite these gains, both indexes are still down on the year, with the war having wiped out their gains from January and February.

Later in the day, Iran denied any allegations of talks with the United States. The Iranian foreign ministry argued that no talks had taken place, raising questions over the validity of Trump's statements.

Some suggest that Iran's ministry is avoiding the admission that talks had taken place, while Iran claims that Trump fabricated a story about the negotiations to generate optimism about the war, give the US more time to plan out their next moves, and prevent markets from nosediving after the backfire of his ultimatum.

Just hours after Iran's announcement, Israel was bombarded with Iranian missiles, several of which made it through the Jewish nation's multi-layered defense system.

However, while the conflict between the US and Iran has continued, Israel has shifted their focus to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Islamic terrorist group centered in Lebanon. Yesterday, Israel destroyed the five primary bridges crossing the Litani River, which Hezbollah had allegedly been using to facilitate the movement of terrorist and weapons.

Now, Israel claims that they will control the area south of the Litani, turning it into a "security zone" to prevent Hezbollah from regaining the territory. Others have labeled Israel's actions as a land grab, as the announcement came just days after an Israeli official stated that the nation should take over the area south of the Litani.

Despite these supposed gains, Israel's brutal attacks on Lebanon have already killed over 1,000 people, raising the total death toll of the ongoing conflict past 2,000.

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Image credit to Reuters