U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 2nd (local time) that recent reports claiming talks on a U.S.-Iran end-of-war deal had been halted were "fake news," adding that negotiations are continuing.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social networking service, that "the fake news report a few days ago that Iran and the United States had halted talks is false and wrong."
He went on, "Our conversations continued 4 days ago, 3 days ago, 2 days ago, yesterday, and today," adding, "No one knows how the talks will conclude, but as I told the Iranian side, it's time for you to make a deal in some form."
Trump then added, apparently mindful of Iran's hostile policies toward the United States and Israel, "You (Iran) have been doing this for 47 years, and we cannot allow it to continue any longer."
On the 1st, Iran's Tasnim News reported that Iran's negotiating team with the United States had halted the exchange of messages with the United States for an end-of-war agreement in protest of Israel's attack on Lebanon. An Iranian official told the Washington Post (WP) that as Israel's intensity of attacks in Lebanon increased, end-of-war talks with the United States were suspended.
Trump claimed the same day that he had led a cease-fire agreement by communicating directly and indirectly with both parties to the fighting (Israel and Lebanon's pro-Iran armed faction Hezbollah), and said the United States and Iran could agree within a week on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would include extending the truce and opening the Strait of Hormuz.