US President Donald Trump said Iran was desperate to make a deal to end nearly four weeks of fighting, contradicting the Iranian foreign minister, who said his country was reviewing a US proposal but had no intention of holding talks to wind down the conflict.
The conflicting statements came as the economic and humanitarian toll of the war mounted, with fuel shortages spreading worldwide, sending companies and countries scrambling to contain the fallout.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that while there had been no dialogue or negotiation with the US, various messages had been exchanged through intermediaries.
"Messages being conveyed through our friendly countries and us responding by stating our positions or issuing the necessary warnings is not called negotiation or dialogue," Araqchi said in a state television interview on Wednesday.
Trump, speaking later on Wednesday at an event in Washington, said Iranian leaders "are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they will be killed by their own people. They're also afraid they'll be killed by us."
Trump has not identified who the US is negotiating with in Iran, with many high-ranking officials among the thousands of people who were killed across the Middle East since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran has since launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the conflict by an Israeli strike and was replaced by his son Mojtaba, who has been wounded in strikes.
Israel took Araqchi and Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf off its hit-list after Pakistan requested that Washington not target them, a Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussion told Reuters on Thursday.
"The Israelis had their ... coordinates and wanted to take them out, we told the US if they are also eliminated then there is no one else to talk to, hence the US asked the Israelis to back off," the source said.
An Iranian embassy official in Islamabad said talks in Islamabad were still on the table and Pakistan was the preferred destination for Tehran, although nothing had been finalized.
