Iran’s Ghalibaf accuses Trump of conducting show diplomacy ‘on loop’

Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator has accused Donald Trump of conducting “theatre diplomacy on loop” after the United States president repeatedly said he was ordering attacks on the country before calling them off.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf made the remarks in a social media post on Thursday, just days after Trump called off the planned strikes and claimed that “the perimeters of a deal” had already been agreed with Tehran. Dismissing the narrative, Ghalibaf said that Washington keeps switching from military threats to negotiation offers as a failed pressure tactic.

“‘Massive attack coming…wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.’ That’s theater diplomacy on loop,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

“Using bullying + broken promises + fake news as leverage is a failed strategy.”

He called on the US to “acknowledge the facts” and fulfill its commitments.

On Saturday, Trump cancelled a planned large-scale military attack on Iran, claiming that Tehran and other countries in the region had asked the US to call off the strikes as a diplomatic breakthrough was close.

Trump claimed the agreement would bring the “ommediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT” and end what he called “Iran’s nuclear threat”.

Iran has been holding talks with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran claiming that a deal is “on the verge of being finalised“, after both countries agreed on the coordinates of routes through the critical waterway.

The strait, a major artery for global energy, was a free international passage way before Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 29 launching what has turned into a months-long regional war.

Iran is now asserting sovereignty over the waterway, parts of which pass through Iranian and Omani territorial waters.

The closure of the strait and attacks on energy infrastructure in the region have sent oil prices soaring.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he believed the war with Iran was close to an end, promising that petrol prices would drop when the conflict is over.

“I think it’s going to end pretty soon. I don’t think they can go much longer,” he said in the Oval Office.

He added that he is involved in the negotiations with Iran. “I think we’re doing fine,” Trump says.

Trump has been asserting for months that Iran is already defeated and that the conflict is on the verge of ending. Iranian officials, however, have emphasised that they are prepared for a long war.