Trump Says He ‘Couldn’t Care Less’ if Peace Talks with Iran Fall Apart After Countries Exchange Renewed Strikes

President Donald Trump gave conflicting signals on Monday about the status of the peace talks with Iran, saying in an interview that he “couldn’t care less” if negotiations collapsed, before later suggesting that talks were continuing at a “rapid pace.” 

Trump’s remarks come after Iranian state media reported that Tehran was poised to suspend negotiations in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon, and as the U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes that underscored the fragility of the ongoing cease-fire.

When asked by CNBC about the possibility of Iran ending talks, Trump said that the Iranians had not told him they would stop negotiating, but added that  if the talks were over, “I don’t really care,” saying the exchange had “started to get very boring.”

“If they’re over, they’re over,” he said during the midday phone interview.

Roughly half an hour after CNBC published the interview, Trump wrote on Truth Social that talks were continuing “at a rapid pace.” In a separate post, he also said he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced that “there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.” 

Trump also said he had “a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”

 Iran has not commented on whether negotiations have resumed. The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which has close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported earlier on Monday that “the Iranian negotiating team will suspend ‘talks and the exchange of texts through mediators,’” due to Israel’s military actions in Lebanon. Israeli officials and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have repeatedly accused each other of breaking the Israel-Lebanon cease-fire.

The uncertainty over the talks comes amid Iran and the U.S. exchanging fire in recent days. The U.S. said it carried out “self-defense” strikes against Iran over the weekend, while Tehran on Monday said it had targeted an air base used in the attack.

U.S. Central Command relayed late Sunday night that it had conducted “self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones” in Goruk, southern Iran, and Qeshm Island. 

The strikes were “in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” according to CENTCOM, which vowed to continue “to protect U.S. assets and interests in response to unwarranted Iranian aggression” during the ongoing, albeit increasingly fragile, cease-fire.

The IRGC on Monday morning said it had responded to the U.S. strikes by targeting “the air base from which the attack originated, and the planned targets were destroyed,” according to a statement carried by semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim.

While Iran did not specify which air base was targeted, Kuwait’s army said it was confronting “hostile missile and drone attacks” and that it had activated air defense systems.

CENTCOM also confirmed that U.S. forces had “successfully intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait” and no American personnel had been harmed.

Kuwait houses a number of U.S. military installations. Its Ali Al Salem Air Base, which hosts the U.S. Air Force, was targeted by Iran early on in the war. Six U.S. soldiers were killed while stationed at Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, in March.

Amid the latest exchange of fire, Trump pushed back at those seemingly questioning the pace of the U.S.-Iran peace deal talks.Trump accused Democrats and some “seemingly unpatriotic Republicans” of “negatively chirping” amid the negotiations, telling them to: “Just sit back and relax. It will all work out well in the end—it always does.”

Oil and gas prices rise as U.S. and Iran trade strikes

Oil prices saw a spike on Monday morning following the renewed exchange in strikes.

The price of Brent crude oil jumped by around 3% on Monday to $94.4 per barrel, up from just over $91.6 per barrel at closing time on Friday.

The cost of U.S. natural gas also briefly jumped to $3.39 per MMBtu on Monday from $3.27 at the close of Friday, according to Trading Economics.

Iran’s continued choke hold over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which around a fifth of global oil production flows, has upended the global economy, causing major instability to energy prices around the world and prompting governments to rethink their own energy production.

The International Energy Agency has described the effective closure of the Strait as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

The impact has been felt for months at the pump in the U.S., with gasoline prices at a national average of $4.32 per gallon as of Monday, up from $2.98 before the conflict, according to the American Automobile Association.

Amid the ongoing upheaval in the Strait, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has warned that the world is on the brink of a “global food crisis” if free naval navigation is not resumed swiftly.

What is the status of the U.S.-Iran peace deal?

The ongoing cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran has been accompanied by slow progress towards a possible peace deal.

Key disagreements—especially over Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and the future management of the Strait of Hormuz—have meant the two sides remain at a relative impasse.

The cease-fire is fragile “because there’s a realization dawning on both sides that they’re not going to get what they want out of the agreement,” Andrew Gawthorpe, senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre, tells TIME. 

During a press briefing on Monday, Esmaeil Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, claimed that the U.S. “continuously changes its views and raises new or contradictory demands” and said the talks are taking place against a backdrop of “deep suspicion and mistrust.”

Baghaei also reaffirmed Iran’s stance that any deal with the U.S. must include guarantees for an end to the Israel-Hezbollah hostilities in Lebanon.

As well as reporting that Tehran was set to stop negotiations with the U.S. due to continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Tasnim added that Tehran would also consider a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump last week doubled down on the U.S.’ demand that the Strait be opened immediately, with no tolls posed to transiting ships, and that Iran must remove or detonate any remaining sea mines laid along the vital passage.

“From the perspective of traditional American foreign policy, Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz is absolutely non-negotiable,” Gawthorpe tells TIME.

It could be that Washington has to relent on other items, he suggests, such as the relief of sanctions on Iran or the unfreezing of Iranian assets, in exchange for Tehran relinquishing management of the Strait.

Trump has also repeatedly reaffirmed the U.S.’ stance that Iran can never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

He said the “nuclear dust” remaining from the U.S. strikes against three key Iranian nuclear facilities last year must be “unearthed by the United States” and destroyed, in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to,” claimed the President.

— Connor Greene contributed.