Live updates: Iran says Trump must choose between war or diplomacy as talks set to resume this week

The Iranian rial fell to a new all-time low against the US dollar, with the open market rate surpassing 2.4 million rials per dollar on Monday.

Data from Pashizi, which tracks Iranian free market exchange rates, puts the dollar at around 2.4 million rials as Iran faces high inflation, sweeping sanctions and growing disruptions to foreign trade.

Annual inflation reached 61.4% in August, while food prices were reported to have increased by 128% from the previous year, according to data from the Statistical Center of Iran.

Iranian state media said on Monday that the Iranian delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York did not intend to hold direct negotiations with the United States, after President Trump said he expected new negotiations to take place this week.

“The Iranian delegation in New York has no intention of negotiating with the United States,” the official IRNA news agency said, citing an anonymous source close to the group.

Mr. Trump told Axios on Sunday that he expected negotiations to continue this week, and added that Iranian leaders were interested in reaching a deal because they were “losing badly.”

“Iran’s views and positions were clearly and explicitly conveyed to the American side… through a Qatari mediator,” IRNA said, adding that the Iranian delegation would return to Tehran on Tuesday.

Since the outbreak of war in February, negotiations between Tehran and Washington have taken place largely through mediators.

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British police said five men arrested early Sunday near an air base used by the United States during its war with Iran were suspected of planning a terrorist act involving three trucks.

RAF Fairford, a British Royal Air Force base about 85 miles west of London in rural Gloucestershire, has been used by US bombers to carry out strikes against Iranian missile sites. The British government, under a deal reached under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, granted the United States permission to use Farford and other key British bases on the condition that it was only for strikes defined as defensive in nature.

Authorities are investigating a possible link between the Fairford arrests and Iran. Iranian authorities have declared that all bases used to attack Iranian territory were legitimate targets.

President Trump praised those who participated in the arrests.

“It was an incredible job. We were under investigation. They were looking to do great damage to our fort. And working with the British worked very well,” he told reporters in Chicago on Sunday. “We had our eyes on them for a long time and we got them.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran was ready for either diplomacy or a return to fighting in the war sparked seven months ago by joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran. He said it is now up to President Trump to choose which direction to take.

“We are fully prepared for when the war resumes, and I repeat, we remain firm in the face of any further aggression, even if it is an apocalyptic war,” Araghchi told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“At the same time, we are prepared to be diplomatic. It’s up to President Trump to choose,” he said.

President Trump on Saturday rejected Iran’s proposal to return to a ceasefire agreement that collapsed months ago, as part of a seven-day plan that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened to commercial shipping.

Araghchi said Tehran would wait for an official response from the mediators.

President Trump said Sunday that he expects negotiations with Iran to resume in the coming week, a day after rejecting a truce proposal put forward by Tehran.

“They want to make a deal, but that’s not the deal I want to make,” Mr. Trump told Axios in a telephone interview on Sunday. “This is what we might have agreed on a year ago.”

Iran said Friday it had submitted a proposal to the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz over seven days, but Mr. Trump said Iranian leaders wanted the deal because “they are losing a lot.”

“They overplayed,” Mr. Trump told Axios.

The president said renewed strikes against Iran were not out of the question, adding: “I’m still thinking about it.”

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Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Iran’s proposed plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart negotiations was “not a serious offer.”

“The president is not Bambi’s little brother. He refused,” Kennedy said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

“We have to continue to do what we are doing: the sanctions, the blockade,” Kennedy said.

“Now there is only one problem: the strait is at least partially closed, and that has affected the price of oil. And oil is in everything, including gasoline, and it is extremely painful,” he said, adding: “We either have to find a way to resolve this matter, or open the strait, or intensify things.”

Kennedy, however, said he would not support sending U.S. ground troops to Iran.