WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that there were no talks ongoing with Iran, leaving the simmering conflict in the Middle East and control of the Strait of Hormuz stuck in limbo.

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump posted on his social media platform.

On Monday, after the memorandum of understanding that the U.S. and Iran signed in June expired, the president said he would not extend it. The agreement had given the parties a 60-day window to negotiate a lasting peace deal.

But the ceasefire had been repeatedly violated in any event, with intermittent clashes continuing, and both sides had declared it defunct.

Brent crude was above $91 a barrel on Tuesday as prospects dimmed for a swift reopening of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited before the war.

Trump is demanding that free passage through the waterway be restored, while Iran said it will govern traffic in conjunction with Oman. The U.S. president claimed that the strait is “open and operating” despite shipping data showing otherwise.

Several ships have been attacked along the route linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea in recent days and traffic is a fraction of what it was prior to the war. On Tuesday, the U.K. said a vessel heading out of the strait was struck by a projectile that damaged its engine room, resulting in one casualty.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s lead negotiator with the U.S., told lawmakers on Tuesday Hormuz won’t reopen before the U.S. lifts a port blockade, releases frozen assets, removes oil sanctions and ceases all its military operations — as it agreed to do in June.

“The regime is willing to endure great hardship, they are willing to inflict great hardship on the population, in order to stay in power,” Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Bloomberg TV. “We are in what I call an economic war of attrition to see who can endure longer, to see who can force the other side to make concessions.”

The war erupted on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran and sparked parallel conflicts that have embroiled much of the Middle East. Trump has repeatedly said his primary objective is to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which the nation’s officials deny pursuing.

Trump on Monday said the U.S. retains leverage over Iran, citing the naval blockade of its ports. He reiterated his idea of declaring Hormuz an American territory, insisting the U.S. had total control — remarks directly at odds with those of Iranian officials.

Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal on how Hormuz should be managed, but the U.S. isn’t part of those discussions. In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump warned that if “Oman gets in the way we’ll bomb the s—— out of them,” without giving any further details, repeating a similar threat he made in May. Oman isn’t a formal U.S. military ally, but has served as a close security partner.

Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp to a war that’s driven up gasoline prices and grown increasingly unpopular in the U.S., threatening to erode support for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. He and his officials have pledged to ratchet up economic pressure on Iran to force it to capitulate, but it’s unclear what measures are under consideration and the Islamic Republic has withstood decades of sanctions.

The war has damaged much of Iran’s industrial capacity, severely curtailed its crude exports and sent inflation skyrocketing. Ghalibaf acknowledged that Iranian citizens had legitimate economic grievances, but said they should prioritize maintaining national unity.

Elsewhere in the region, Israel’s military has staged strikes that it said targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza over recent days, while Yemen-based Houthi rebels have attacked ships in the Red Sea. All three militant groups are backed by Iran.

Meanwhile, Trump’s son-in-law and peace envoy Jared Kushner visited the Middle East this week to try and accelerate a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, holding talks with mediators and the leaders of Israel and Hamas.

Kushner assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his military won’t be compelled to leave Gaza until Hamas fully disarms, according to an official with knowledge of the talks. Hamas has insisted that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territory before it gives up its weapons, although Agence France-Presse on Tuesday cited the group as saying it remained committed to the truce.

—With assistance from Dan Williams, Catherine Lucey, Paul Richardson, Devika Krishna Kumar, Akriti Sharma, Julius Domoney and Courtney Subramanian.

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