President Donald Trump said U.S. negotiators would travel to Pakistan on Monday for a second round of peace talks with Iran.
“My representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan. They will be there tomorrow evening for negotiations,” Trump said. said in a post on Truth Social Sunday.
The president also claimed Iran had violated a ceasefire that is set to end Wednesday.
“We are proposing a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they accept it because if they don’t, the United States will destroy every power plant and bridge in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!
US delegation to Pakistan will again be led by Vice President J.D. Vancetwo senior US officials told MS Now.
Earlier Saturday, in a telephone interviewTrump told MS NOW that the vice president would not lead the second round of negotiations for security reasons because the Secret Service would not have enough time to secure the area before the vice president arrived.
Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will also travel to Islamabad for the negotiations, according to the White House.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar spoke by telephone with his Iranian counterpart on Sunday, on the eve of a new round of negotiations between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Dar discussed with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “the need for continued dialogue and engagement, which is essential to resolve the current issues as quickly as possible.”
According to the ministry, the Iranian president will speak by telephone with the Pakistani prime minister later on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani capital is once again closed in anticipation of the high-stakes negotiations. Two giant US C-17 cargo planes landed at Pakistan’s Nur Khan air base on Sunday afternoon, carrying security equipment and vehicles in preparation for the arrival of the US delegation, two Pakistani security sources said.
Municipal authorities in the capital Islamabad have stopped public transport and heavy goods vehicle movement in the city. Rolls of barbed wire were deployed near the Serena Hotel where last week’s talks were held. The hotel asked all guests to leave on Sunday.
Iran intensifies its rhetoricIran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said talks aimed at ending the war with the United States and Israel were continuing but his country was ready to resume the conflict and warned the United States against resorting to a naval blockade in the strait.
“We do not think that because we are negotiating, the armed forces are not ready,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a televised speech late Saturday, according to an Iranian state media report. “On the contrary, just as people are on the streets, our armed forces are also ready.”
Ghalibaf also reiterated Iran’s intentions to restrict traffic across the strait, a key energy chokepoint.
“It is impossible for anyone other than us to cross the Strait of Hormuz. If the United States does not abandon the blockade, movement in the Strait of Hormuz will certainly be restricted,” he said.
Asset announced the blockade on April 12, after complain that Tehran has not appeared to reopen the strait, one of its conditions for accepting the fragile two-week ceasefire currently in force.
Gunboat DiplomacyTwo Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats opened fire on an oil tanker transiting the strait, the British army’s maritime commercial operations center announced on Saturday. It said the tanker and its crew were safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.
Shipping sources told Reuters that at least two other vessels had reported coming under fire as they tried to cross the waterway.
Confusion over the status of the strait has left ship operators in a state of uncertainty.
Video footage from a ship tracking company Kpler showed that several tankers and cargo ships attempted to leave the waterway Friday but turned back.
Oil prices fell by more than 10% on Friday, to less than $90 a barrel, on hopes that energy supplies would start flowing from the region again. Before the war, about a fifth of the world’s crude supplies passed through the strait. The closure of the sea lane connecting the Persian Gulf to global energy markets has triggered the largest oil supply disruption in history.
In Mumbai, India summoned Iran’s ambassador after an Indian-flagged ship carrying crude oil was attacked while trying to cross the strait, Reuters reported.
At a White House event Saturday, Trump declined to answer reporters’ questions about Iran but said, “We’re having some really good conversations going on.”
He said Iran “got a little cute,” later adding, “They wanted to close the strait again,” referring to the Strait of Hormuz.
“They can’t blackmail us,” Trump said.
Iran replenishes its stock of missiles and dronesA senior Iranian military official said Iran had started replenishing its stockpile of weapons and ammunition as the two-week ceasefire was about to expire, state media reported.
Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace force, said the Revolutionary Guards repaired missiles and drone launchers during the ceasefire that began April 8, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
“Our speed in updating and replenishing missile and drone launch platforms is even faster than before the war,” he said.
The channel aired a two-minute video accompanied by upbeat music, showing missiles and drones in warehouses as well as mobile missile launches.
The United States and Israel say they have degraded Iran’s military capabilities during the nearly six-week war.
Nuclear rightsAt the same time, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reportedly said that the United States cannot deprive Iran of its rights to a nuclear program.
“Trump says Iran cannot use its nuclear rights, but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?” Reuters cited Pezeshkian, via the Iranian Students News Agency.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in Turkey, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said his country would not hand over its enriched uranium to the United States, rejecting Trump’s claims.
“I can tell you that no enriched material will be shipped to the United States,” Khatibzadeh said. “It’s not getting off the ground and I can assure you that while we are prepared to address all of our concerns, we will not accept things that are not getting off the ground.”
Trump said Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium.
He also said the United States would go to Iran and “collect all the nuclear dust,” referring to the 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.
Peace talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, between a US delegation led by the vice president J.D. Vance and Iranian negotiators led by Ghalibaf failed to reach an agreement last weekend.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that Pakistan’s army chief, acting as an intermediary, presented the proposals to Iran during his recent visit to Tehran and that they were still under consideration.
The content of the proposals has not been revealed.
“Excessive demands”The Council said Iran had not yet responded, but that further negotiations would require the United States to abandon “its excessive demands and adapt its demands to the realities on the ground.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Friday social networks: “In accordance with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage of all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire.”
However, ships must transit via a “coordinated route” announced by Iranian maritime authorities, Araghchi said. It is not yet clear whether Tehran will force ships to pay a toll to pass the strait.
Israel and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to a 10-day ceasefire starting at 5 p.m. ET that evening. Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against the militant group Hezbollah, a close ally of Iran, poses another obstacle to negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
— The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
