US President Donald Trump said on Monday he had given orders to postpone any military strikes against Iranian power plants for five days, hours ahead of a deadline that threatened further escalation in the conflict now in its fourth week.

Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US and Iran had had “VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE” conversations over the past two days about a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST”.

The White House did not respond to questions about the content of the talks, who participated or where they were held.

For its part, Iran has denied holding any talks with the US.

But, later, when Trump spoke to the media in Florida, he asserted that if talks failed, “we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out”.

He claimed that the Iranian side had initiated contact with the US.

“They called, I didn’t call,” he said. “They want to make a deal, and we are very willing to make a deal.”

He also claimed that there were already “major points of agreement” with unnamed Iranian interlocutors and outlined US conditions: “We want no enrichment, but we also want the enriched uranium.”

In a striking aside, Trump also declared that a “regime change” was under way in Iran, saying the United States was speaking to “a top person” who was “the most respected and the leader”. He added that it was “not the supreme leader,” Mojtaba Khamenei, and dismissed him by saying, “I don’t consider him, really, the leader.”

He refused to name those allegedly in contact with Washington. “Because I don’t want them to be killed,” he explained.

From the US, he said his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and close aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner had talked to the Iranians on Sunday, adding that discussions would continue on Monday.

In comments later in Memphis, Tennessee, he played up the chances of a deal. “With Iran, we’ve been negotiating for a long time, and this time, they mean business,” Trump claimed.

“We’re giving it five days, and then we’re going to see where that takes us. And I would say at the end of this period, I think it could very well end up being a very good deal for everybody.”

Tehran denies Trump’s talks claim

Iranian officials swiftly denied that any negotiations were under way.

“There are no talks between Tehran and Washington,” the Mehr news agency quoted Iran’s foreign ministry as saying, describing Trump’s remarks as an effort “to reduce energy prices”.

“Over the past few days, messages were received through some friendly countries indicating a US request for negotiations aimed at ending the war,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, according to the official IRNA news agency. The news agency reported that the ministry said Iran had not responded to the messages.

Baqaei “denied any negotiations or talks with the United States during the past 24 days of the imposed war”, which Trump had claimed were in motion just hours earlier.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also said no talks had taken place with the United States.

Qalibaf posted on X that reports of talks were “fake news” aimed at manipulating oil markets.

Oil drops, stocks recover on Trump comments

In his message, written entirely in capital letters, Trump said he had instructed the defence department to postpone the strikes pending the outcome of the talks.

He claimed while speaking to Fox Business Network that Iran wanted “badly to make a deal”, which could come within five days.

A source briefed on Israel’s war plans said Washington had kept it informed of its talks with Tehran, and that Israel was likely to follow Washington in suspending any targeting of Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on reported talks with Iran or Washington’s decision to suspend strikes on some Iranian targets.

Trump’s comments briefly sent the price of the Brent crude oil benchmark down around 13 per cent to back below $100 a barrel.

By 1245 GMT, it stood around $101.80.

Global markets also recovered sharply, with US stock futures reversing losses to gain around 1.3pc.

On Saturday, Trump had warned that Iranian power plants would be destroyed if Tehran failed to “fully open” the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping within 48 hours. Trump set a deadline of around 7:44pm EDT (2344 GMT) on Monday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday threatened retaliation, saying they would attack Israel’s power plants and those supplying US bases across the Gulf region if Trump followed through with his threat.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the war that the US and Israel launched on February 28, which has upended markets, driven up fuel costs, accelerated global inflation fears and convulsed the Western defence alliance.

However, the threat of strikes on Gulf electricity grids raised fears of mass disruption to desalination for drinking water, and further rattled oil markets.

While attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they could be catastrophic for its Gulf neighbours, which consume around five times as much power per capita.

Electricity makes their gleaming desert cities habitable, in part by powering the desalination plants that produce 100pc of the water consumed in Bahrain and Qatar. Such plants use seawater to meet more than 80pc of drinking water needs in the United Arab Emirates, and 50pc of the water supply in Saudi Arabia.

Tehran threatens to mine Gulf

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the resulting energy crisis was worse than the two oil shocks of the 1970s and the gas shortage connected to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine put together.

Iran’s Defence Council escalated its threatened retaliation on Monday, prior to Trump’s delay, saying Tehran would cut all Gulf routes by laying sea mines if Trump followed through, state media reported.

“In this case, the entire Gulf will practically be in a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a long time …” The Israeli military said early on Monday it had begun its latest broad wave of strikes on infrastructure in Tehran.

Iranian news agencies said six people had been killed and 43 injured in strikes on residential buildings in the western city of Khorramabad.

A strike on the southern city of Bushehr targeted the local meteorological organisation and killed the head of meteorology for Bushehr’s airport, state media reported.

The Iranian Red Crescent posted a video of a residential building in affluent northern Tehran with most of its facade destroyed and emergency staff rescuing someone on a stretcher from the upper floors.

Across the Gulf, the Saudi defence ministry said two ballistic missiles had been launched towards Riyadh. One was intercepted while the other fell in an uninhabited area.

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Additional input from Anwar Iqbal