What to know about possible talks to wind down the Iran war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprising claim this week that talks with Iran were yielding great progress has only raised more confusion over a war whose goals were already unclear. The most basic question: What talks?

Iran denied any negotiations were taking place, pledging to fight “until complete victory.” Pakistan, Egypt and Gulf Arab nations are trying behind the scenes to piece together talks, but their efforts still seem preliminary. Israel is vowing to keep up its attacks.

If anything, the war appears to only be escalating. Barrages were fired into Iran, Israel and across the Mideast on Tuesday, and thousands more U.S. Marines were on their way to the Gulf.

Here is a look at what's known and not known about possible talks to wind down the war.

Since launching the war alongside Israel on Feb. 28, Trump has given shifting and often vague objectives, and those mixed messages were on display in recent days. He has talked of degrading or destroying Iran's missile capabilities, and its ability to threaten neighbors — goals that he has some flexibility in declaring accomplished. A much tougher goal is ensuring Iran can never build a nuclear weapon, and Trump has insisted that will be part of any deal.

A reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — a vital waterway for oil shipments that Iran made virtually impassable when the war began — is now also a priority, for Trump and the global economy.

As Trump talks of engaging with leaders in Iran, he has backed off promoting the Islamic Republic's collapse. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, continues to say the war aims to help Iranians overthrow the theocracy.

Trump claimed that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held talks Sunday with an Iranian leader. He did not say who that was.

Reports focused on Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as a possible interlocutor. But Qalibaf quickly denied talks were taking place in a post on X.

The U.S. agreed “in principle” to join talks in Pakistan, according to three Pakistani officials, one Egyptian official and a Gulf diplomat, while mediators were still working to convince Iran. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide the details to the media.

The Egyptian official said efforts are centered on “trust-building” between the U.S. and Iran, aiming to reach a pause in fighting and a “mechanism” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s leadership appears to have remained relatively cohesive, despite weeks of heavy bombardment and the killing of its supreme leader and many top-ranking military figures.

But who actually is in charge is not known. The new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, hasn’t been seen or directly heard from since he was named to replace his slain father, Ali Khamenei.

Within the Islamic Republic are other centers of power, including the military and the powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as well as political figures like Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian.

It’s not certain anyone entering talks with the U.S. would have backing from the military or Guard. In the ongoing war, Iran’s military has conducted strikes based on orders of local commanders, rather than from any political leadership, Araghchi has said.

The spokesman of Iran’s top military command, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, vowed on Tuesday that the fighting “will continue until complete victory.” It was a message of defiance to Trump’s claim that Iran was petitioning for peace, but possibly also a warning to anyone within the Iranian leadership not to back down in talks.

Trump’s sudden declaration of progress in talks on Monday came just as the deadline was about to run out on an ultimatum he had made over the weekend threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran threatened to retaliate against power, water and oil infrastructure across the Gulf.

Trump on Monday pushed the deadline back five days and said there’s a “very good chance” a deal could be reached this week. That was a relief to global oil and stock markets.

Trump’s move could signal he’s wary of the war's possible long-term damage to the U.S. and global economy, though his administration has insisted that any pain from spiking oil prices will quickly be reversed once the war is over.

“Trump could be actively seeking an offramp,” the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank, wrote in an analysis.

On the other hand, the Soufan Center noted, Trump could be buying time for thousands of Marines heading to the region to arrive.

The Marine deployment could be a tactic to pressure Iran on negotiations. But it has also raised speculation that the U.S. may try to seize Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, which is vital to Iran’s oil network, or carry out an operation to remove enriched uranium from inside Iran. Either would mean a greater escalation and a longer war.

Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out. Israel has suggested ground forces could participate in the war.

Nuclear negotiations were already taking place when the U.S. and Israel launched their surprise attack on Feb. 28, killing the elder Khamenei in the opening salvos of the bombing campaign.

That only deepened Iranian mistrust of Americans in negotiations, especially after Trump’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from a landmark nuclear agreement reached with the United States three years earlier. Iran and the U.S. held negotiations in early 2025, and when a two-month deadline set by Trump ran out, Israel hit Iran in a surprise attack that the U.S. joined in a 12-day war, striking Iranian nuclear facilities and military positions.

Trump said Monday that any deal to end the war will entail the U.S. removing Iran’s enriched uranium, which is critical to its disputed nuclear program. Iran refused that demand in the past, insisting it has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

A less ambitious goal for talks could be to reach a ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

But Araghchi seemed to reject any partial deal in an interview with Al Jazeera last Wednesday. “We don’t believe in ceasefire. We believe in the end of war ... the end of war in all fronts,” Araghchi said, emphasizing the need for solutions to conflicts throughout the region.

Notably, Israel is not involved in the move for negotiations.

Israel has depicted itself as following Trump’s lead, and it seems unlikely to continue with its strikes on Iran if the U.S. declared an end to the war. Still, it has pursued its own war aims beyond the Americans’. Its bombing last week of Iran’s offshore South Pars natural gas field triggered intensified Iranian attacks on the Gulf Arab states, and Trump told Israel to halt such attacks.

In a statement late Monday, Netanyahu acknowledged Trump's diplomatic efforts but said Israel would continue to strike its enemies for the time being.

Also, an end to the war on Iran does not mean an end to Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon. There, Israel has seized a new opportunity to try to crush Hezbollah after the militants fired rockets in support of Iran.

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Keath reported from Cairo, Ahmed from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Smoke billows following an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Vehicles drive under billboards showing portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, foreground, and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to him, along a highway in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

President Donald Trump listens to a reporter during the swearing in for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Iranian Red Crescent emergency workers use a bulldozer to clear rubble from a residential building that was hit in an earlier U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — An exit poll pointed to a disappointing showing for the party of Denmark’s prime minister in an election Tuesday, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over U.S. President Donald Trump 's ambitions toward Greenland.

All three parties in Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's government looked set to lose ground, according to a poll conducted by the Megafon research institute for broadcaster TV 2. It suggested that left-leaning and right-leaning blocs were likely to fall short of a majority in parliament.

If that is the case, experienced Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen — a former prime minister — could play the role of kingmaker. His centrist Moderate party could determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country of some 6 million people.

The 48-year-old Frederiksen is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing what has become a tradition in Danish politics.

The poll showed Frederiksen’s center-left Social Democrats remaining the biggest single party with about 21% of the vote, well below the 27.5% they took in the 2022 election.

Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to. She apparently hoped that her resolute image in the standoff over Trump’s push for control of Greenland, rallying European allies behind Denmark, would help her with voters.

Her support had previously waned as the cost of living rose, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.

Social Democrat lawmaker Morten Klessen said the outgoing government had performed well, but that “there’s been a lot of trouble in Europe and I think our government has had a lot of focus about Ukraine and I think we have lost a little bit in domestic votes for that." He argued that “we need Mette Frederiksen in Europe for solidarity.”

No single party was expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark’s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the “red bloc” on the left or the “blue bloc” on the right, after weeks of negotiations.

Frederiksen’s outgoing administration was the first in decades to cross the left-right divide.

Caroline Stage Olsen, a former minister seeking election for the Moderates, argued that “a large part of the Danish population wants a center-focused government.”

She said that "difficult times call for cooperation and call for the parties and for politicians to gather up, man up, woman up and cooperate.”

Two center-right challengers hoped to oust Frederiksen as prime minister. One is in her current government — Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberal, or Venstre, party, which headed several recent administrations but also appeared on course to win fewer seats Tuesday.

The other was Alex Vanopslagh, 34, of the opposition Liberal Alliance, which calls for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power.

Further to the right, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party was set to improve significantly on its very weak showing at the last election in 2022.

Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, wasn't a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.

Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now.

After Trump backed down on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.

Denmark’s single-chamber parliament, the Folketing, has 179 seats. Of those, 175 go to lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each to representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.

More than 4.3 million were eligible to vote.

Moulson reported from Berlin. James Brooks in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report.

Ballots will be sorted at the end of the general election in Aalborg, Denmark, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Danish Prime Minister and Leader of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen meets voters at a rally in her support in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Jacob Engel Schmidt from the Moderates reacts to the first exit poll during the Danish election for the parliament in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Rasmus Flindt Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Members of The Social Democrats react to the first exit poll during the Danish election for the parliament in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Leader of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen, center left, and leader of the Danish People's Party Morten Messerschmidt , center, right, speak during TV2's party leader debate 'The Last Answer' in the Common Hall at Christiansborg, in Copenhagen, Monday, March 23, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

A person exits a polling booth at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A man casts a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A woman holds a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People line up to receive their ballots at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

FILE - Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of European Union defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos, File)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, and Pia Olsen Dyhr, left, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, right, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)