ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared that there are no ongoing or scheduled talks with Iran, insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is "open and operating" and that all mines in the waterway have been cleared.

"There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran," the US president wrote on Truth Social, coming merely one day after he told Fox News in an interview that US officials were "directly" speaking to representatives of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) via diplomatic backchannels.

"There are no talks underway between IRGC officials and Americans, and this lie by Trump is merely fantasies caused by delusions and nightmares stemming from his defeat and desperation in the war," IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said in response, adding that the only official channel for dialogue is through the Iranian foreign ministry, which has also denied that negotiations are taking place.

Over the course of the conflict, Trump has repeatedly suggested that Washington is in contact with high-level Iranian officials even at times when Tehran has denied the claims outright.

Trump added in his Tuesday post that "the Hormuz Strait is open and operating," despite data from the shipping monitor Kpler showing that only six commercial vessels transited the waterway on Monday amid ongoing Iranian restrictions.

Following the collapse of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) in late June after Iran targeted a vessel in the strait for failing to heed its approved routes, Tehran has once more maintained a chokehold on the waterway, directly influencing global energy prices.

Iran and Oman have since been negotiating a new framework for managing the Hormuz strait that is likely to spell an end to pre-war conditions of free transit, with Iranian authorities having proposed the concept of vessels being charged passage fees.

During the same Fox News interview in which he claimed a backchannel with the IRGC existed, Trump threatened to "bomb the shit" out of Oman "if they get in the way."

"All water mines have been removed or detonated," Trump asserted in his Tuesday Truth Social post, referencing US reports that Iran had planted naval mines in the strait to hamper unauthorized transit.

On the same day, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the US fulfills its commitments under the now-ruptured MoU, including the release of frozen assets, the lifting of oil sanctions, and the end of military operations on all fronts.