Iran is holding no negotiations with the United States and will never let Washington dictate the timing of war and peace, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on July 27, hours after a senior US official said talks were continuing at the highest level.

The competing accounts point to a gap between Tehran's public position and Washington's, coming during a pause in a war that began on February 28 and has run through more than five months of intermittent fighting since the collapse of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, the ceasefire framework agreed in June. US President Donald Trump halted bombing over the weekend after 13 consecutive nights of strikes, and Iran suspended its own attacks in response.

US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Trump was giving diplomacy room to work, describing negotiations as continuing "at every level, from the more technical aspect of it all the way to the highest levels," NBC reported on July 26. Waltz gave no detail on the talks and said the US military remained "locked and loaded," with more assets moving into the region.

Waltz described Iran's leadership as split. "They are divided. There is internal fighting. Some are seeking the guidance of the supreme leader. Others want to move into a different direction," he said.

Baghaei rejected any suggestion that Washington could set the terms of the conflict. "We have never allowed, and will not allow, the United States to determine the timing of war and peace," said Baghaei. "We will defend ourselves for as long as our interests require, and whenever we feel we can use the tool of diplomacy to protect national interests, we will certainly use it."

He said the Islamabad memorandum's terms had been breached and that Iran had halted its own obligations in response. "No agreement can be one-sided," said Baghaei.

He opened the weekly briefing by naming schoolchildren recently identified among the dead at Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, in Hormozgan province, which Iran says was struck on the first day of the war, putting the toll at 168, mostly children.

On the Caspian Sea, where Ukrainian forces struck an Iranian commercial vessel, killing one sailor, Baghaei said the attack was illegal and would not go unanswered. Ukraine said it had targeted vessels carrying military cargo linked to Iran, along with a Russian warship. Iran denies any role in the Russia-Ukraine war.

"Zelenskiy's elders should both control him and be careful," said Baghaei, warning that Caspian littoral states were angered by the strike.

Baghaei said the Strait of Hormuz remained closed because of US and Israeli military action, and that two days of talks with Oman aimed at ensuring safe shipping between the two coastal states, separate from any contact with Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due at the White House this week.