by WorldTribune Staff, March 23, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
President Donald Trump on Monday said that his ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by later in the day or face devastating strikes on its power plants was being postponed amid “good and productive” peace talks with whoever is left to negotiate for the Iranian regime.
“I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up in a deal,” the president said, saying he’ll give it five days. “And then we’re going to see where that takes us. And I would say at the end of this period I think it could very well end up being a good deal for everybody.”
Who exactly is doing the talking in Iran is not clear. True to form, the foreign ministry issued a statement denying that talks had been conducted.
Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social:
“I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
“BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.”
Following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s clerics elected Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader. But he has not been seen in public since the strike that killed his father.
Ali Larijani, who as the head of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran was considered by many the de facto leader, was killed in an Israeli air strike on March 17. The Israeli attacks also took out the head of the brutal Basij militia unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The head of Iran’s National Defense Council, the commander of the IRGC, the defense minister and the intelligence chief have also been killed.
Who’s really running Iran? According to observers, the answer appears, increasingly, to be hardline IRGC commanders, who are going to pick even more hardliners.
Larijani’s brother Sadiq Larijani is among the favorites to replace his brother and lead Iran while Mojtaba Khamenei remains hidden from the public eye, said Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media Research Institute in Israel.
“He might be a candidate because the IRGC would want a hardliner. They need someone who will go with them, who will move with them, who will collaborate with them,” Carmon said.
Following his post to Truth Social, Trump told FOX Business anchor Maria Bartiromo: “Iran wants to make a deal badly.”
Iranian state propaganda outlets denied any talks and insisted Trump “retreated” from his deadline “out of fear of Iran’s response.”
Trump rejected that reporting to Bartiromo, saying peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had spoken with their counterparts in Iran Sunday night.
Prior to Trump’s announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged talking by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been an intermediary before in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Following Trump’s threat to “obliterate” the country’s power plants if it didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Monday evening, Iran threatened to lay sea mines across the “entire Persian Gulf.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged over 1,000 points on Monday after Trump postponed his ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The blue-chip index jumped 1,076 points, or 2.4%, to 46,654. Other indices also climbed, with the S&P 500 adding 138 points, or 2.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index gaining 2.4%.
Before Trump announced the delay, futures had pointed to an almost 1% decline in stocks.
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