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The United States and Iran have negotiated through the whole of their war: before it, during it, and after each ceasefire failed. They have twice reached terms, in April and in June 2026, and both times the fighting resumed within weeks. Oman, Qatar and Pakistan carry the messages.
The wider confrontation, its history and each side's full account: Iran in regional and international confrontation.
The agreement signed in June expired on 17 August with nothing to replace it. President Trump first ruled out further talks, then said on 14 September that he was open to them. Iran's president has offered to return to the June terms if Washington does.
Three things have broken every round. Enrichment: Washington wants none on Iranian soil; Tehran will limit it but not end it. Sequence: each side wants the other to move first, sanctions relief before limits or limits before relief. Who is bound: Israel is not a party to the talks and has struck during them, in Lebanon and in Iran; Tehran holds Washington answerable, and Washington says it does not control its ally. Beneath all three lies a lack of trust that the record on both sides supports.
Iran negotiates to buy time. It makes commitments under pressure and walks them back when the pressure eases, and it uses ceasefires to rearm and to close the strait again. Talks are worth having only from strength, with deadlines, and with force ready when they pass.
Iran was bombed two days after a round of talks in February 2026 and in the middle of negotiations the year before. The United States left the last agreement Iran signed and kept. It offers ultimatums with a deadline and calls them diplomacy, and it lets Israel break every truce while claiming clean hands. Iran will negotiate, but not under fire and not about its surrender.
Washington's leaves out that it attacked during talks, twice; that it abandoned the 2015 agreement while Iran was keeping it; and that its demands have changed from round to round.
Tehran's leaves out that it closed the strait again within days of each truce, that it kept striking the Gulf states while negotiating with them, and that its own hard-liners have an interest in no deal.
Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.
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Both sides want out of a war neither can win, and the outline of a deal has been on the table since spring: limits and inspections on one side, relief and an end to strikes on the other. What is missing is a guarantee that either will still honour it next month.