US President Donald Trump said that US negotiators would be in Pakistan today for talks with Iran, but did not detail which officials would be sent to the second round of in-person talks.
Trump in a post on social media said Iran violated the ceasefire agreement by firing bullets on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz and he threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran if it does not take the deal that the US is offering.
“If they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” Trump wrote.
Photo: Reuters
There was no comment from Iran as of press time last night.
Iran doubled down on its pledge to restrict ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in place, as mediators scrambled to extend the ceasefire set to expire on Wednesday.
The dueling blockades have complicated Pakistani-led mediation attempts and raised questions about whether the two-week truce could be extended.
“It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf said.
Qalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the US, slammed Washington’s blockade as a “naive decision made out of ignorance.”
Before Trump’s latest comments, Iran was still seeking peace despite deep-seated distrust of the US, he added.
“There will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy,” he said.
Iran had announced the strait’s reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon took hold on Friday. However, after Trump said that the US blockade of Iran’s ports “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the Washington, Iran said it would continue enforcing its restrictions in the strait.
After a brief uptick in transit attempts on Saturday, vessels in the Persian Gulf held their positions, wary after two India-flagged ships were fired on mid-transit and forced to turn around. Their retreat returned the strait to its pre-ceasefire “status quo,” threatening to deepen the global energy crisis and push the parties toward renewed conflict as the war entered its eighth week.
With days until the ceasefire runs out, Iran on Saturday said it had received new proposals from the US, and Pakistani mediators were working to arrange another round of direct negotiations in the coming days.
Pakistani authorities began tightening security in Islamabad.
A regional official involved in the mediation efforts said mediators were finalizing the preparations and US advance security teams were already on the ground.
“Americans are risking the international community, risking the global economy through these, I can say, miscalculations,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Saeed Khatibzadeh said, adding that the US is “risking the whole ceasefire package.”
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a statement calling the US blockade a violation of the ceasefire and said Iran would prevent “any conditional and limited reopening” of the strait.
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