Donald Trump has cast fresh doubt over a peace deal with Iran while Tehran officials have issued a new threat.
The US president told reporters on Monday that Iran would not make the type of deal with his country that he thought was “necessary”.
Meanwhile, Iran said it would shift its policy from defensive to "fully offensive" due to the deadlock in efforts to agree a permanent end to its war with the US.
“Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions”, the Iranian official told Reuters, adding that Tehran would conduct a "timely and precise" military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed.
There was no immediate response to those comments from Washington, but Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News on Monday that Iran "should put up the white flag of surrender".
It comes after Trump threatened to attack Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil waterway in the Middle East where maritime traffic remains muted during the conflict.
Full story: Fallout from war in Iran is leaving millions vulnerable to hunger
Trump says Iran won't make deal he thinks is needed, threatens to bomb Oman
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran would not make the deal he thinks is needed to end a war with the US and should surrender as talks between the countries remained stalled.
"They're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary. Look, we're in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Asked whether the US was seeking to extend an interim deal with Iran, Trump said "no."
The interim deal agreed to in June declared an "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts", but quickly unraveled, with Trump saying it was "over" on 7 July and Iran's foreign ministry declaring it "suspended" a week later.
Under that memorandum of understanding, Iran and the US committed to negotiating a final deal — covering broader issues such as the fate of Iran's nuclear programme — in a maximum of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent.
Monday marks 60 days since the MOU was signed. Hours before, Trump told a Fox News reporter during a phone interview that Iran "should put up the white flag of surrender."
Separately, Oman and Iran have been in talks to try to reach an agreement to restore commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which carried 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February.
"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the shit out of them," Trump told Fox.
When asked later in the Oval Office if he was out of patience with Oman, Trump told reporters: "No, I don't think they behaved very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things."
The dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz has driven up fuel prices and put pressure on Trump to end a war that is unpopular at home ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of the US Congress.
Full story: Trump again threatens to ‘bomb the s*** out of’ ally Oman over Strait of Hormuz
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Erdogan urges Trump to continue talks with Iran, offers support
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan urged Donald Trump in a call to continue talks with Iran to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, and offered Ankara's support in peace efforts, the Turkish presidency said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the presidency said Erdogan and Trump also discussed the war in Gaza, a defence pact signed between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and bilateral ties. It added Erdogan told Trump that Israel's attacks on Palestinians in Gaza had increased at a time when the second phase of Trump's peace plan was supposed to come into effect.
Trump approval falls to 33%, lowest of his presidency, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Donald Trump's approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency, with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the US war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday.
Just 33 per cent of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump's performance in the White House, while 64 per cent disapproved. Trump's approval rating, down from 35 per cent in a poll that closed earlier this month and lower than at any point in his current term, has now tied the lowest level of his prior term reached in December 2017.
After returning to the White House in 2025 with just under half the country approving of his presidency, Trump's popularity this year took a hit after he ordered strikes on Iran alongside US ally Israel. The ensuing conflict paralyzed a fifth of the global oil trade, triggering a surge in the price of gasoline that is weighing on U.S. households - and on Trump's Republican allies defending congressional majorities in November midterm elections.
Watch: Trump insults female CNN reporter as he denies conditions are deteriorating on the USS Abraham Lincoln
Iran threatens to go on offensive in Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy with US fails
Iran will shift to a "fully offensive" military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to its war with the U.S. have stalled, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, as Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement.
Progress towards peace talks and a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, with no sign that the warring parties are moving towards ending the conflict that the U.S. and Israel launched with attacks on Iran on 28 February.
"Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions," the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a "timely and precise" military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed.
Monday marked the day by which Iran and the US were expected to reach a final peace agreement under a memorandum of understanding signed in June and aimed at ending the war.
Signed on 17 June, the MoU set a 60-day timeframe for the U.S. and Iran to reach a broader deal on Iran's nuclear programme and U.S. sanctions.
The agreement, which declared the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts", quickly unravelled over a dispute about control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.
Asked by reporters on Monday if the U.S. was seeking to extend June's interim agreement, president Donald Trump said no.
Kushner says Iran, US conversations are robust but no understanding yet
US president Donald Trump's envoy Jared Kushner on Monday said conversations between the US and different areas of the Iranian government were probably more robust than ever, but the two sides had not yet reached an understanding.
Kushner, who is visiting the Middle East, made the comments in an interview with Fox News.
Drone attacks target Iraqi officials
Two officials in northern Iraq were targeted in drone attacks that the regional counterterrorism service said were launched from the border with Iran.
One was fired at the office of Masrour Barzani, prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, and the other targeted the home of a top regional intelligence official, the counterterrorism service said.
There were no casualties. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Since the beginning of the US-Iran war, Iran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militant groups have launched regular attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq and on bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissident groups, but Monday's direct attack on regional government buildings was unusual.
Barzani on X called the attack "a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region."
US forces currently stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a 30 September deadline agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
Iran says it is near finalising a deal with Oman
Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries, and they are now working to finalise details for a joint statement.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran, Iran's capital, that "an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route."
He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman.
Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during an interim period.
The US has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on 28 Feb.
Baghaei conceded the talks with Oman have gone slowly, "but we had planned, and still plan, to finalise the understanding in the form of a package: the map plus a joint statement."