Iran’s Ghalibaf accuses Trump of conducting show diplomacy ‘on loop’
Al Jazeera · LC · trust 26/100
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf calls on the US to 'acknowledge the facts' [File: Hamed Malekpour/Iranian Parliament Speaker Office/WANA via Reuters] By Adam Hancock and Reuters Published On 6 Aug 2026 6 Aug 2026 Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator has accused Donald Trump of conducting “theatre diplomacy on loop” after the United States president’s repeated claims that he was ordering attacks on Iran, and then calling them off.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf made the remarks in a social media post on Thursday, just days after Trump called off his latest planned strikes , claiming that “the perimeters of a deal” had already been agreed to with Tehran. Dismissing the narrative, Ghalibaf said that Washington keeps switching from military threats to offers of negotiation as a failed pressure tactic.
“‘Massive attack coming…wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.’ That’s theater diplomacy on loop,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
“Using bullying + broken promises + fake news as leverage is a failed strategy.”
He called on the US to “acknowledge the facts” and fulfil its commitments.
On Saturday, Trump cancelled a planned large-scale military attack on Iran, claiming that Tehran and other countries in the region had asked the US to call off the strikes as a diplomatic breakthrough was close.
Trump claimed the agreement would bring the “immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT” and end “Iran’s nuclear threat”.
Iran has been holding talks with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz , with Tehran claiming that a deal is “on the verge of being finalised“, after both countries agreed on the coordinates of routes through the critical waterway.
The strait, a major artery for global energy, was a free international passage before Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, launching what has turned into a months-long regional war.
After the attacks, Tehran effectively shut the strait, and now asserts sovereignty over the waterway, parts of which pass through Iranian and Omani territorial waters.
The closure of the strait and attacks on energy infrastructure in the region, by both the US and Iran, have sent oil prices soaring.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he believed the war on Iran was close to an end, promising that petrol prices would drop when the conflict is over.
“I think it’s going to end pretty soon. I don’t think they can go much longer,” he said in the Oval Office.
He added that he is involved in the negotiations with Tehran. “I think we’re doing fine,” Trump said.
Trump has been asserting for months that Iran is already defeated and that the conflict is on the verge of ending. Iranian officials, however, have emphasised that they are prepared for a long war.
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