WASHINGTON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that negotiations between the United States and Iran are continuing, though Tehran has denied the existence of any direct or indirect talks between the two sides.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are involved in the talks with Iran, Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that Tehran would like "to make a deal."
Asked what led him to weigh diplomacy with Iran, he said, "They're talking to us and they're making sense."
Trump also said that Iran has given Washington a "very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money," but refused to say what it was exactly.
"They gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it, so that meant one thing to me: we're dealing with the right people," he said.
The "present" was "oil and gas related ... it was related to the flow, to the Strait," Trump said, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway crucial to world oil transportation.
There had been "outreach" between Washington and Tehran, and Iran is willing to listen to "sustainable" proposals to end the war, said a CNN report on Tuesday, citing an Iranian source.
On Monday, Trump said Washington had "major points of agreement" with Iran during talks over the weekend, but refused to name the Iranian negotiator the United States talked with, saying Washington had spoken to a "top person" in Iran.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday denied having negotiations with the United States, the country's official IRNA news agency reported. ■
