Name: Trump administration engaged in ‘preliminary conversations’ with Iran to end war
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Markets closing just moments ago, stocks surging, and oil prices plummeting after the president said the U.S.

The second conditional

could reach a deal with Iran to end the war and that the Strait of Hormuz could open, quote, "very soon." The president today making an abrupt shift back walking back his threat to obliterate Iran's power plants unless it agreed to reopen the strait by tonight, instead announcing he was postponing any and all military strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure for five days, saying the U.S.

and Iran were having productive conversations to end the war.

Here's more of what the president said about those talks.

I would say that if they carry through with that, it'll end that, that problem, that conflict.

And I think it'll end it very, very substantially.

And if it goes well, we're going to end up with, uh, settling this.

Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out.

And it's got to be no more wars, no more nuclear weapons.

They're not going to have nuclear weapons anymore.

Now, it's unclear who specifically the Trump administration is speaking to in Iran.

President Trump would not say and again boasted that all of Iran's top leaders were dead,

and Tehran denying any such talks have happened.

The head of Iran's parliament posting a social media quote saying, quote, "No negoti no new negotiations have been held with the U.S.,

and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S.

and Israel are trapped." As for that vital shipping lane, President Trump now suggesting the Strait of Hormuz could be jointly controlled by him and Iran's next supreme leader.

That'll be opened, uh, very soon if this works.

Will Iran still be able to control the flow of oil?

You want the United States to be in control?

Me and the Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah.

The price of oil will drop like a rock as soon as a deal is done.

Today, crude oil settled around $88, plummeting double digits after nearing $100 per barrel on Friday.

But the average price for a regular gallon of gasoline is still closing in on around $4.

Iran, meanwhile, launching several major strikes over the weekend, hitting two cities in southern Israel, including near Israel's main nuclear site.

The local hospital saying approximately 175 people were injured in those strikes.

joint military base in the Indian Ocean, renewing questions about Tehran's military capabilities and the reach of their ballistic missiles.

Joining me now, NBC News White House correspondent Monica Elba, NBC News International correspondent Ralph Sanchez, who's in Doha, and

NBC News Senior National Security Correspondent Courtney Kuby, as well as NBC News Business and Data Correspondent Brian Chung.

The president has repeatedly said that Iran's leadership is gone.

He said if, uh, their leadership is gone, uh, who do we know about who he's having these talks with?

And the president didn't want to reveal that, only saying that this person is in a position of power, is a top person, is somebody who could potentially have some influence.

But the United States is not the one who wants to communicate who that may be.

side of things, it seems to be the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and

his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Wickoff, that are participating in these talks, these negotiations.

But we just don't even know what stage they are in, Ryan.

Initially, the president did try to say that they had been ongoing,

but then he kind of shifted that to say they were really just preliminary conversations that maybe are going through intermediaries that could potentially, eventually lead to an actual diplomatic discussion.

But the president did seem to rule out that it wasn't contact with the current supreme leader, with the son of the late Ayatollah, that that's not who he was in touch with, raising questions also about his status, the president questioning whether he's even alive or not today, Ryan.

Uh, and it does appear to look it's a bit of whiplash with all of this, uh, Monica.

I-it seems as though the president has, uh, sends us an, uh, myriad of directions o-over the course of the past 48 hours.

On Saturday night, he was touting the success of the U.S. military strikes.

He said Iran wanted to make a deal, but he didn't.

Just in the last couple of days, he has also said that there was nobody left in Iran to talk to, that even if the United States wanted to engage in these conversations, that there was no one who could be on the other end.

Now he's saying today that there is somebody potentially on the other end.

So there has been a lot of confusion on that front and confusion about what stage we are actually in, in this conflict.

It was on Friday that the president said he was considering winding down the war.

Then he did make that threat specifically against the Iranian power plants.

Then he walked that back this morning, saying that he's going to revisit that five days from now.

So prompting, again, just way more questions than answers, Ryan.

A-and of course, the United States is not the only player in all of this.

were to reach a deal with Iran, i-is there any confidence that Israel would follow suit and be willing to end their military strikes as well?

And the president was asked exactly that a couple of days ago on whether he is prepared to say that this war is over and what that might mean for Israel if they don't agree to saying that, essentially.

And the president did seem to indicate that there could be, obviously, different motivations here between Israel and the United States,

and they may have differing timelines on how this does ultimately end.

We do know today, according to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that he held a phone call with President Trump.

They have been in pretty constant contact over the last couple of weeks about all of this.

But it is pretty clear that they do have different motivations in all of this and could have completely different definitions of what so-called potential victory is here, Ryan.

And we remember, uh, the president imploring them to stop the bombing of Gaza.

And they continued despite, uh, his request.

Let's turn to Ralph now, who is in Doha with, uh, a view of what things are like in the region.

We saw this major Iranian strike in southern Israel, Ralph.

And are there concerns about the effectiveness of Israel's missile defense system?

So two Iranian ballistic missiles hitting in very rapid succession Saturday night.

You're looking at images there of the aftermath in southern Israel.

That's a town called Arad, one of those missiles falling, basically creating an enormous crater in between those buildings.

Some 175 or so people were injured in these two towns, these two impacts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it's basically miraculous that nobody was killed.

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Trump administration engaged in ‘preliminary conversations’ with Iran to end war

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