Iran has rejected the U.S. proposal for direct talks, accusing Washington of duplicitous tactics amid a deepening crisis of trust.

Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf have ground to a halt, undermined by profound mutual suspicion between Tehran and Washington. According to Axios, citing sources familiar with the discussions, Iranian leaders view the American overture with deep skepticism, seeing it as another strategic maneuver rather than a genuine attempt at peace. In private conversations with international mediators, Iranian officials have stated that Tehran has already been deceived by the U.S. administration twice before—instances in which diplomatic overtures and tentative nuclear agreements were followed by sudden American military strikes. Iran has no intention of falling into a third such trap, where preparations for aggression might be masked behind the facade of negotiations.

This distrust is compounded by the timing of the proposed face-to-face meeting in Islamabad, which coincided with a major U.S. military buildup in the region, including the deployment of additional Marines. Tehran interprets this as an effort to negotiate from a position of strength.

Compounding the impasse, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a sharply worded statement that further dimmed prospects for a quick diplomatic breakthrough. In a direct message to Washington, the IRGC warned U.S. officials “not to call your defeat a deal,” accusing the Americans of negotiating with themselves while ignoring Iran’s actual stance. Iranian military leaders stressed that regional stability—and pre-war energy prices—will not be restored until the White House abandons any notion of hostile action against the Iranian people. The statement was uncompromising: the IRGC declared that its forces would never reach an accommodation with the current U.S. leadership, “neither in the short term nor in the long term.”

Mediation attempts by Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan have so far hit a wall of mutual recriminations. Iran remains convinced that the U.S. is simply buying time to complete its military deployments, while Washington continues to present the Islamabad meeting as the last chance to prevent the total disruption of the region’s energy infrastructure. The absence of direct communication channels, combined with the IRGC’s aggressive rhetoric, has created a highly volatile atmosphere. Any effort by mediators to narrow the gaps is met with Tehran’s firm belief that American betrayal is inevitable.

With global oil markets already jittery from Iranian threats, this diplomatic vacuum is rapidly becoming the primary driver of a potential full-scale war in the region.