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US President Donald Trump has said “there are very friendly negotiations going on” about the conflict with Iran, after the warring sides did not exchange strikes for a third straight day.<\/b><\/p>\n
He expressed optimism for an end to the war on Monday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One: “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen.”<\/p>\n
However, he warned that Washington would “go back to doing what we were doing” before the pause in fighting if the latest negotiations failed.<\/p>\n
Tehran has denied that any direct negotiations are taking place.<\/p>\n
Trump said he had decided to pause US strikes on Iran on Friday because the countries mediating between them had asked him to give the talks another chance. <\/p>\n
Iran has also halted its attacks.<\/p>\n
The pause follows nearly two weeks of daily US strikes and tit-for-tat attacks, effectively unravelling the ceasefire struck in June.<\/p>\n
The US military said at the time that its strikes were aimed to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz” – a global route for transporting oil.<\/p>\n