Esmaeil Baghaei denied the talks Donald Trump said were already underway. "At present," in the ministry's Monday line, Iran is not holding negotiations with the United States. [1]

The spokesman said Tehran is instead talking to Oman about a temporary Hormuz corridor. He said an Oman deal will not reopen the strait while US "violations" continue. Iran International quoted him adding that Iran has no plan to receive or send a US delegation in the coming days. [2]

The denial is the operational fact for anyone trying to match Trump's "we are talking right now" to a room, a time, and two delegations. Those three items are missing from Tehran's briefing. They are present only in Washington's.

The paper does not resolve the contradiction by picking a favorite briefer. It records both sentences. If a channel exists, it is not the one Baghaei will name. If it does not, Trump's last-chance clock is running against an empty chair. Either way, "no negotiations with US" is the line Iran put on the record on Monday, August 3.

The Oman corridor, in the same briefing, is the only diplomacy Tehran will describe. That is a neighbor-to-neighbor shipping file. It is not a nuclear negotiation.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem