Vance’s Trip to Pakistan for Peace Talks with Iran on Hold

US Vice President JD Vance, who is expected to lead US negotiators if the talks continue, canceled his trip to Pakistan, a US official said. Iran also said it had not decided whether it would participate.

Pakistani leaders, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, worked hard late Tuesday to get both sides to agree to a second round of ceasefire talks, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The ceasefire was scheduled to end on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told Iranian state television that “no final decision” had been made on whether to participate due to “unacceptable actions” by the United States, apparently referring to the recent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

With Vance suspending his travel to discuss further ceasefires, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected in Washington on Tuesday afternoon for consultations on how to proceed, the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss home rule negotiations.

The official warned that Trump could change his mind about negotiating with Iran at any time and declined to predict what would happen if the current ceasefire ends without another meeting in Islamabad, but noted that Trump retains options other than resuming airstrikes.

Trump says he is not in favor of extending the ceasefire Both sides are mired in rhetoric. US President Donald Trump warned that “a lot of bombs will start going off” if a ceasefire agreement is not reached before the deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator said Tehran had “new cards on the battlefield that have not yet been revealed”.

The ceasefire, which began April 8, could be extended if talks continue, but Trump said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday: “I don’t want to do that.”

“We don’t have much time,” Trump said, adding that Iran “has a choice” and “they need to negotiate.”

Although White House officials said Vance would lead the American delegation, Iran did not say who it might send. Iranian state television broadcast a message on Tuesday stating that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad so far.”

US says its forces boarded sanctioned oil tanker The United States on Tuesday said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude in Asia. The Pentagon said in a social media post that US forces landed on M/T Tifani “without incident”.

The U.S. military did not say where the ship boarded, but ship tracking data showed the Tifani was located in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday. The Pentagon statement stated that “international waters are not a haven for sanctioned ships.”

The US military seized an Iranian container ship on Sunday; This was the first intervention under the blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command described the boarding of the gunboat as an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

Control of the Strait of Hormuz is key to negotiations The United States imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran to end its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil passes in peacetime.

Iran’s dominance in the strait caused oil prices to rise. Brent crude, the international standard, traded near $95 a barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, when Israel and the United States attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz was completely open to international shipping. Trump demanded that ships be allowed to pass unhindered again.

European Union transport ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how to protect consumers after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe had “perhaps six weeks” of jet fuel supplies remaining.

Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new offers from Washington, but also claimed that a large gap remained between the parties. Issues that derailed the latest round of talks included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the strait.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf accused the United States on Tuesday of wanting Iran to surrender.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” X wrote in his post.

Pakistan hopes talks will progress Pakistani officials expressed confidence that Iran will send a delegation to resume the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first rounds on 11 and 12 April ended without an agreement.

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met the US ambassador in Islamabad on Tuesday to call for an extension of the ceasefire. Dar also met with the ambassador of China, Iran’s important trading partner.

Security has been tightened in Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols on routes to the airport.

Israel jails soldiers who destroyed statue of Jesus in Lebanon The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had sentenced two soldiers who destroyed a statue of Jesus in Lebanon to 30 days in prison and suspended them from combat duty. Footage of an Israeli soldier smashing the statue’s head with a sledgehammer emerged over the weekend, sparking widespread condemnation.

Israel said one of the punished soldiers smashed the statue to the ground. The other filmed the destruction. The Israeli army said it had replaced the statue.

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon will resume in Washington on Thursday, an Israeli, Lebanese and a US official said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for direct diplomatic talks for the first time in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

A 10-day ceasefire began on Friday in Lebanon, where clashes broke out between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, two days after the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran to start the war. More than 2,290 people have died in the conflict in Lebanon.

According to officials, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran since the war began. Additionally, 23 people died in Israel and more than a dozen in the Gulf Arab countries. 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon and 13 US soldiers in the region.