Trump says Iran talks could resume over next two days in Pakistan
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran talks could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, according to an interview with the New York Post.
“You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go there,” he said.
“It’s more likely, you know why? Because the field marshal is doing a great job,” he said, referring to Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir.
Continuing his praise for the military chief, Trump said: “He’s fantastic, and therefore it’s more likely that we go back there. Why should we go to some country that has nothing to do with it?”
Negotiating teams from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad this week to resume talks to end the war, sources earlier told Reuters on Tuesday, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.
While the US blockade drew angry rhetoric from Tehran, signs that diplomatic engagement might continue helped calm oil markets, pushing benchmark prices below $100 on Tuesday.
The highest-level talks between the two adversaries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended in Islamabad without a breakthrough at the weekend, raising doubts over the survival of a two-week ceasefire that still has a week to run.
But a source involved in the talks said on Tuesday both countries could return as early as the end of this week, and that a proposal had been shared with Washington and Tehran to resend their delegations. “No firm date has been set, with the delegations keeping Friday through Sunday open,” a senior Iranian source said.
A US official said there was continued engagement and forward motion on trying to get to an agreement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also said efforts were still underway to resolve the conflict.
US President Donald Trump said Iran had been in touch on Monday and wanted to make a deal, adding that he would not sanction any agreement that allowed Tehran to possess a nuclear weapon.
Vice President JD Vance, who led Washington’s delegation opposite Iran’s speaker of parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, told Fox News on Monday the US had “made a lot of progress” by communicating to Tehran where Washington “could make some accommodation” and where it would remain inflexible.
He said Trump was adamant that any enriched nuclear material must be removed from Iran and a mechanism must be established to verify that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.
Tehran “moved in our direction, which is why I think we would say that we had some good signs, but they didn’t move far enough,” Vance said, without disclosing further details.
Since the United States and Israel began the war on February 28, Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels except its own, saying passage would be permitted only under Iranian control and subject to a fee. The fallout has been widespread, as nearly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas previously flowed through the narrow waterway.
In a countermeasure, the US military began blocking shipping traffic in and out of Iran’s ports on Monday. Tehran has threatened to hit naval ships going through the strait and to retaliate against its Gulf neighbours’ ports.
Meanwhile, Shipping data on LSEG showed Chinese-owned oil-and-chemicals tanker Rich Starry passed through the strait on Tuesday – the first since the US blockade began at 10am EDT (1400 GMT) on Monday. The vessel, which departed Sharjah anchorage off the coast of Dubai on Monday heading for China, had earlier turned back minutes after approaching the strait.
The US’s blockade has further clouded the outlook for global energy security and the supply of a vast array of goods that rely on petroleum, and has little, if any, international backing.
NATO allies, including Britain and France, said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, stressing instead the need to reopen the waterway. Monitoring Desk
