18:38 (IST) Jun 27

Iran has ruled out plans to meet with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview on state television on Thursday, directly contradicting US President Donald Trump’s claim that talks were scheduled for next week, The Times of Israel reported.

Araghchi stated that Tehran was still evaluating whether engaging in renewed talks with Washington served the nation’s interests. He recalled that five previous rounds of negotiations were cut short following attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities by Israel and subsequently the United States. While Washington and Jerusalem said the strikes aimed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Tehran insists its programme is strictly for civilian use. However, Iran’s uranium enrichment to 60 percent is widely recognised as suitable only for weapons. Jerusalem claims to have intelligence that Tehran was actively pursuing a nuclear bomb.

Araghchi described the damage from the recent 12-day conflict with Israel as “serious,” adding that assessments were underway. “A detailed assessment of the damage is being carried out by experts from the Atomic Energy Organization,” he said. “Now, the discussion of demanding damages and the necessity of providing them has been placed as one of the important issues on the country’s diplomatic agenda,” he added. “These damages are serious, and expert studies and political decision-making are underway at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Iranian lawmakers passed a “binding” bill to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. Araghchi confirmed that the bill had been passed by the legislature and approved by the top vetting body. “From now on, our relationship and cooperation with the agency will take a new form,” he said. (ANI)

President Donald Trump said Sunday he did not plan to extend the July 9 tariff deadline he set for countries to broker deals with the US.

“I don’t think I’ll need to,” he told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo. He added, however, “I could, no big deal.”

During a White House press conference on Friday, Trump said the July 9 deadline to raise “reciprocal” tariffs was not set.

“We can do whatever we want,” said at the press conference. “We could extend it, we could make it shorter,” adding that his preference was to make it shorter.

Also on Friday, Trump said he was cutting off trade talks with Canada and threatened to set a new tariff rate on the country’s goods within the next week.

Trump said the move was in response to Canada’s move to implement a digital services tax on technology companies, calling it a “direct and blatant attack on our country.”

“We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The abrupt blow-up in US-Canada relations followed a flurry of optimism on the trade front that helped send stocks to new records on Friday. Most notably, the US and China stepped closer to a full tariff and trade deal, making a pact to formally cement the informal trade understanding reached in Geneva talks in May.

US tariffs on Chinese imports will start at 30%, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday. China tariffs on US imports will be 10%.

The pact marks a significant step in stabilizing trade relations between the two countries, which lapsed into feuding soon after an initial truce in May. China has confirmed it will deliver rare earths to the US as part of the trade framework, and the US will respond by taking down its countermeasures, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg.

Lutnick also claimed that trade agreements with 10 key US trading partners are imminent, as countries from Canada to Japan struggle to get over the finish line with just two weeks to go. Bessent on Friday said the US could complete the balance of its most important trade talks by Labor Day.

“I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day,” Bessent said in a Fox Business interview.

The Trump administration has signaled a willingness to roll back the self-imposed tariff deadline of July 9 as pressure builds. Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told Yahoo Finance the tariff pause to be extended for countries negotiating “in good faith.”

Senate Republican leaders are hoping to start voting on their massive domestic policy bill tomorrow, even as major pieces of it have yet to be finalized.

GOP senators held a lengthy lunch meeting today with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as the process grows messy and acrimonious, with a host of conflicting demands persisting within the party. Still, Republican leaders put members on notice that Senate votes were imminent.

“My expectation is: At some point tomorrow we’ll be ready to go,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said after today’s meeting, although he wouldn’t say whether he has the 51 votes needed to begin debate.

“We’ll find out tomorrow,” Thune said, as Republicans race toward a self-imposed July 4 deadline to send the bill to Trump’s desk.

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