An Iranian official on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s assertion that the country’s leaders were currently engaged in “productive” negotiations with the U.S. over an end to hostilities, saying that the remarks were simply a way to manipulate the market and ease domestic political pressure.

Just hours earlier, Trump claimed that the two countries had shared “very good and productive conversations” over the weekend. He told reporters Monday that Iran agreed to not develop a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz will be “opened very soon, if this works.”

Trump posted on Truth Social Monday that as a result of the talks, he told the Pentagon to postpone all military strikes against Iranian power plants for five days, delaying his weekend threat to bomb the country’s energy infrastructure.

But at least one Iranian government official said that Iran and the U.S. were not negotiating at all.

“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews [sic] is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, wrote Monday on X.

It’s unclear whether negotiations are actually taking place. Trump told reporters Wednesday that Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were leading the talks with Iran. He also said that the U.S. and Iran would likely meet soon or speak by phone.

Iranian officials previously said that they would not ask for a ceasefire and would retaliate with strikes on power plants throughout the region if their own were struck, in addition to keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed.

Trump has repeatedly said that the end of the war is near, but has offered differing timelines.

His post Monday did not mention other kinds of strikes in the country. The U.S. and Israel’s bombings have hit residential areas, schools, hospitals, government buildings and coastal military infrastructure.

On Monday, shortly after Trump’s post, Israel announced a new wave of strikes in Iran, according to the New York Times.

The conflict has seen mounting death tolls, with 1,500 killed in Iran and more than 1,000 killed in Lebanon, according to the countries’ health ministries. Thirteen Americans and 18 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, according to their governments, as well as many more casualties in the region.

In the U.S., the conflict has sent oil and gas prices soaring in recent weeks. Trump has acknowledged that reopening the flow of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz is “essential.”

Oil prices fell after Trump’s Monday announcement.