U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that the United States is “low keying” its approach to negotiations with Iran, suggesting that economic pressure on Tehran is starting to take hold.
The U.S. military had launched strikes against Iran every day for about two weeks straight before Trump announced a stop in the attacks, saying they would lead to more negotiations. A U.S. naval blockade is still in effect against the country’s ports.
“We are low keying it,” Trump told Axios about talks with Iran. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
Iran’s economy “is in very bad shape” and the country lacks the funds to pay its troops, he added, citing the U.S. naval blockade.
“It will work out. It always works out,” the president said of the conflict and talks with Tehran. “It’s like a chess game.”
Over the weekend, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the Middle East, wrote in a post on X that 53 commercial ships that were headed to or from Iran were redirected while two were disabled and two more were boarded.
With the pause in fighting, the price for a barrel of West Texas International has dropped from a recent high of around $92 on July 23 to $78 on Sunday afternoon. Brent crude, the primary benchmark for outside the United States, also dropped from around $100 per barrel on July 23 to around $83.
Gas prices, which are hovering around $4 nationally, have decreased roughly 8 cents per gallon of regular from $4.09 a week ago to $4.01 on Sunday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that an agreement on the strait that lies between the two countries was in the “final stages” but repeated comments made on Saturday that it would not reopen it unless other conditions were met.
The Iranian regime and the U.S. government are not engaged in talks, and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Araqchi said, adding that messages are being exchanged via intermediaries.
The United States began air strikes on Iran in late February with Trump and other officials saying they are working to make sure the Iranian regime cannot obtain nuclear weapons.
The secretary of Iran’s top national security body, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, also listed what he said were ending U.S. threats against Iran, stopping any military activity against Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni, and Iraqi allies, lifting a blockade and sanctions on Iran, and freeing Iranian assets.
Ultimate decision-making in Iran rests with Iran’s top leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since an air strike killed his father and predecessor on Feb. 28, the first day of U.S.–Israeli air strikes on Iran.
On Saturday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that the conflict with Iran “is not over” and that “we’re in the middle of the game, and we’re applying a whole host of tools” against Tehran.
“They want this thing to be over,” he said, referring to some elements within Iran’s leadership. “The question is whether they’re able, their system is able, to give the things that are necessary for us to be happy, for us to feel like we’ve gotten what we need out of this particular engagement.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
