TEHRAN - US President Donald Trump issued yet another threat on Monday, warning Iran that it faces "one last chance before decapitation" to agree to American terms.

Claiming that a diplomatic resolution was imminent and asserting that an "unbelievably duplicitous" Iran was desperate to cut a deal, Trump insisted that Washington was on the verge of ending the war that the US and Israel initially began on February 28.

Yet, Tehran immediately exposed the White House’s posturing. |The Iranian Foreign Ministry flatly denied holding any direct negotiations with Washington, confirming that Iran is exclusively consulting with Omani mediators to regulate maritime transit through the strategic Strait of Hormuz—entirely on its own sovereign terms.  

This latest "decapitation" ultimatum is merely the newest entry in a long line of hollow threats that have defined Washington's reactive stance since joint US-Israeli attacks began. Over the past months, the US president has repeatedly set tight deadlines and promised catastrophic strikes, only to quietly walk them back the moment Tehran refused to blink. The pattern of American hesitation was established early in the conflict.

In March, after threatening to obliterate Iran's energy infrastructure unless the Strait of Hormuz was reopened, Trump delayed military action twice within days, citing supposed "progress" in negotiations. In early April, after apocalyptic declarations that a "whole civilization will die," Washington abruptly called off scheduled strikes and announced a two-week ceasefire. By late April, that temporary pause was converted into an indefinite ceasefire at the request of regional mediators, according to the narrative of the White House. Repeated threats throughout May, June, and July—including grand claims of taking "total control" over Iran's oil industries—consistently collapsed into sudden pauses, extensions, and unfulfilled demands as Iranian endurance tested Washington’s resolve.

While Washington continuously shifts its narrative from claims of imminent victory to sudden diplomatic halts, Iran has maintained solid operational control over the core economic bottleneck of the conflict. By enforcing strict maritime control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global energy shipments pass, Tehran has effectively throttled international oil supplies. This has sent crude prices soaring worldwide and demonstrated the severe limits of American military coercion.  The strategic fallout of Tehran's chokehold is taking a heavy domestic toll inside the United States. Recent public opinion polling shows Trump’s approval rating plummeting to a low of 35 percent, driven by public outrage over sky-rocketing fuel costs and broader economic instability stemming from the Persian Gulf crisis. For the first time in nearly a decade, American voters favor opposition leadership on economic stewardship—a direct consequence of the administration’s miscalculations in West Asia. Despite the White House's frantic claims of record-high support, the reality on the ground confirms that while Washington issues empty rhetoric, Tehran holds the real leverage in shaping the parameters of the conflict.