Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday that no negotiations with the United States are taking place and no meetings are scheduled. [1] All negotiators are inside the country except Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, on pilgrimage in Iraq. The only talks Baghaei acknowledged were with Oman over Hormuz management. [1]

That is a wartime posture, not a pause. Trump had said Sunday that talks would begin Monday afternoon and that he was holding off attacks to let them happen. [1] Tehran answered by keeping the military on high alert and refusing the calendar. A senior Iranian source told Reuters Araqchi would be unavailable at least until week's end. [1]

This paper's August 1 account of Iran still enforcing Hormuz by striking civilian hulls has not been reversed by a cancelled U.S. strike package. Nine Hormuz transits on Sunday, none on the traffic-separation scheme, is the operational echo. [2] Iran has publicly rejected Washington talks since a June memorandum collapsed in early July. [1] High alert is the status that produces that tape: forces up, calendar empty, strait still treated as a gate.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem