Iran not planning to attend talks with US in Pakistan
The ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports has been a major sticking point; The problem was further complicated on Sunday when an American destroyer fired on and captured an Iranian ship trying to escape from it. Tehran warned that it would retaliate.
State broadcaster IRIB quoted Iranian sources on Sunday as saying there were “currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks.”
Fars and Tasnim news agencies had previously stated from unnamed sources that “the general atmosphere cannot be considered very positive” and added that the lifting of the US blockade was a precondition for negotiations.
State-run IRNA, meanwhile, noted the blockade and Washington’s “unreasonable and unrealistic demands” and said “there is no clear hope for productive negotiations under these conditions.”
Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just three days away from expiring a two-week ceasefire that halted a Middle East war sparked by US-Israeli surprise attacks on Iran on February 28.
So far, a single 21-hour negotiation session, held in Islamabad on April 11, has failed, but groundwork for new talks has continued thereafter. “We are offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they accept it,” said Trump, and reiterated his threats against Iran’s infrastructure if a deal is not made.
USA opened fire on Iranian ship
Trump has been under pressure to find a way out since Tehran moved to close the Strait of Hormuz early in the war.
This vital waterway is a channel through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes in peacetime, and its closure has negatively affected the global economy and shaken markets.
After failing to force the gate to reopen, Trump responded by imposing a US naval blockade of Iranian ports in an attempt to cut off Tehran’s oil revenues.
On Sunday, he announced that a massive Iranian-flagged cargo ship was “trying to get around our Maritime Blockade and that’s not going well for them.”
Trump said that a US destroyer warned the ship to stop and then forced it to stop by “cutting a hole in the engine room”, adding: “Currently, the ship is under the custody of the US Marine Corps.”
Trump said the Iranian-flagged ship Touska was under US Treasury sanctions “due to its previous history of illegal activity.”
ISNA news agency later quoted a spokesman for Iran’s central command center as warning that “the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy and the US military.”
Iran had briefly reopened the strait on Friday, accepting the Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again the next day in response to the US maintaining the blockade.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission will be “considered as collaboration with the enemy and the offending ship will be targeted.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Sunday that the blockade was a “violation” of the ceasefire and illegal collective punishment against the Iranian people.
A handful of oil and gas tankers had crossed the strait early Saturday during the brief reopening, but tracking data early Sunday morning showed the waterway was clear for shipping.
Three incidents the previous afternoon, involving Iranian gunfire and threats to merchant ships, highlighted the danger of any attempted crossing.
Increased security
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the talks in Pakistan, security was visibly stepped up in Islamabad on Sunday in anticipation of the talks.
Authorities announced road closures and traffic restrictions across the city and in neighboring Rawalpindi.
The US president said his unnamed negotiators would arrive in Pakistan’s capital on Monday evening.
A White House official said the delegation will be led by Vice President JD Vance and will also include Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
An important issue in the negotiations was Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium near weapons grade.
Trump said Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over about 440 kilograms of enriched uranium. “We will achieve this by going to Iran with a large number of excavators,” he said.
However, the Iranian foreign ministry said that the stockpile, which was thought to be buried under the rubble as a result of the US bombing during the 12-day war last June, “will not be transferred anywhere” and that its “delivery to the US was never brought up in the negotiations.”
On Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian questioned why Iran should give up its “legal right” to its nuclear program.
