US, Iran give conflicting signals on talks as Hormuz traffic stays low

US President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Monday that Iran wants to reach an agreement with Washington "quickly and badly" and he would decide whether the US engages with Tehran.

However, Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said in a statement published by the Iranian state media that the country will not negotiate "until Iran's conditions are met." As negotiations remain stalled, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is still largely restricted.

Preliminary ship-tracking ​data showed on Monday that the number of commodity vessels transiting through the waterway fell to a single digit per day over the weekend, well below a 10-day average of ‌14.

The US and Iran are also at odds over an incident involving El Gaia, a super oil tanker.

The Iranian Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said the tanker seeking to cross the Strait of Hormuz via the "forbidden" route south of the waterway exploded and caught fire after hitting naval mines.

Efforts to contain the fire on the tanker were futile and the entire vessel was engulfed in flames, according to a statement on the IRGC's official news outlet Sepah News.

However, the US Central Command disputed the claim, saying the Panama-flagged crude oil tanker was struck by an Iranian missile last month and "rendered inoperable." Meanwhile, a United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has urged all parties to the ongoing conflict to abide strictly by international law and cease hostilities, following a series of deadly US airstrikes in southern Iran.

"Despite insisting that its military was not targeting civilians, on 1 September, a US airstrike hit a house in Kuhestak City, Hormozgan Province, where wedding celebrations were reportedly underway, according to credible reports and information obtained by the Fact-Finding Mission," a press release on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights website said. (With input from Xinhua)