A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump made a surprise announcement today about talks to end the war with Iran.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have had very, very strong talks. We'll see where they lead. We have points - major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement.
MARTÍNEZ: He also said he was ordering the U.S. military to hold off on attacking Iranian power plants. NPR's Daniel Estrin is covering the war from Tel Aviv. Daniel, so what do we know about these conversations President Trump says are going on between Iran and the U.S.?
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Well, we should talk about the context first. President Trump had been warning that the U.S. would strike Iranian power plants if Iran didn't fully open the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. And he gave a 48-hour deadline on that, and it was supposed to end tonight. And the Iranians were threatening to retaliate by attacking energy infrastructure in the Mid East. This has been a huge issue in the war, the Strait of Hormuz crisis. It has rattled the global oil and gas trade. It's been a major obstacle in Trump being able to end the war.
And so now the president has issued this new statement - he said it first on social media - that the U.S. and Iran have had very good and productive conversations over the past two days. And he said that based on that, he's instructed the U.S. military to hold off on striking any Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days as talks continue throughout the week. Trump told CNBC, we're very intent on making a deal with Iran. He told Fox News that these talks happened as recently as last night, involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So he says that they were good and productive conversations. What has been Iran's response?
ESTRIN: Well, Iran's foreign ministry denied that Iran is talking with the U.S. It said Iran is talking with regional countries. And indeed, Axios is reporting, according to an unnamed U.S. source, that Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan have all been passing messages between the U.S. and Iran's foreign minister over the last two days about ending the war and resolving all outstanding issues. NPR has not independently confirmed that. It is the first indication we have that the U.S. and Iran might be holding indirect talks about ending the war. And the question is, are these talks serious, or is there something else here at play?
Iran's foreign ministry is saying that the president's statements are part of efforts to reduce energy prices. And indeed, we saw oil prices drop after Trump made this announcement today. Iran is alleging that Trump is just trying to gain time to carry out his military plans. We know that at the moment, U.S. Marines have been deployed to the region to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. There has been a lot of speculation that those Marines could capture Iranian territory to help secure the strait, and Iran said it would mine the Persian Gulf if any of its territory is invaded.
MARTÍNEZ: So considering that this is a joint U.S.-Israeli war, how is Israel responding to news of negotiations with Iran?
ESTRIN: Well, Israel's prime minister's office has not responded immediately. A person briefed on the matter, not authorized to speak publicly, told me that Israel did know about these talks happening behind the scenes. But ending the war now would seem to go against what Israel wants to do, which is to keep attacking Iran and degrading its military capabilities. After Trump's public announcement, Netanyahu appeared in a video with a kind of a curious response. He says, we are working to take Israel to places it has never been and Iran to places it has never been. They are down. We are up. Today, Israel said it's attacking Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran. There have been reports of power outages there.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thank you.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
