Iran-Israel war LIVE: Trump says Iran ‘afraid’ to admit it wants a deal

Pro-government supporters wave national flags as one of them holds a picture of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a rally in a square in western Tehran, Iran, on March 25, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
AP

U.S. President Donald Trump insisted that Iran was taking part in peace talks, suggesting Tehran’s denials were because Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side. “They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly. But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Mr. Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress. “They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”

Meanwhile, the White House warned Iran against rejecting a deal to end the war in West Asia. “If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment… Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a news briefing.

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“President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again,” she said, while adding that “talks continue”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, rejected the U.S. overture, saying “we do not intend to negotiate”.

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“At present, our policy is the continuation of resistance”, Araghchi said on state TV, adding that the United States “speaking of negotiations now is an admission of defeat” by Washington. “We seek an end to the war on our own terms,” Mr. Araghchi confirmed, “and in a way that it will not be repeated here again”.

An Iranian official quoted by Press TV said Tehran has put forward its own five conditions for hostilities to end.

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These include a robust mechanism guaranteeing that neither Israel nor the U.S. will resume the war as well as compensation for war damages. Iran’s conditions also include a cessation of hostilities on all regional fronts and against all “resistance groups”, an implicit reference to the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. Tehran also wants international recognition and guarantees of Iran’s rights to exercise its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

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