Trump says US-Iran peace talks could resume in next two days

By Julian Borger, and Saeed Shah in Islamabad

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump has said that US-Iranian peace talks could resume in Islamabad over the next two days, and complimented the work of Pakistan’s army chief as mediator.

The US president was speaking on Tuesday (14) to a New York Post reporter who had gone to Islamabad for the first round of ceasefire talks over the weekend. After an interview discussing prospects for negotiations, the reporter said the president had called her back “with an update”.

“You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go there,” Trump said. He added that Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was doing a “great job” in arranging the talks.

“He’s fantastic, and therefore it’s more likely that we go back there,” Trump said.

Munir is a powerful figure in Pakistan and has good relations with Trump, who has called him his “favourite field marshal”, and with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

A Pakistani official said on Tuesday that he expected talks to restart soon, but it may take a day or two longer than Trump suggested. “The game is on,” the official said.

Islamabad is racing to arrange a meeting date that provides enough time for negotiations before the two-week ceasefire ends on April 22.

Trump’s comments followed a wave of speculation about a new round of negotiations, after 21 hours of talks on the weekend. Those ended with the US vice-president, JD Vance, walking out on Sunday (12) morning, claiming that Iran had failed to make an “affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon”.

After the talks ended, Trump declared a US naval blockade on ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf in an effort to increase pressure on the country’s economy, and as a counter to Iran’s near-total closure of the strait of Hormuz to ships using other Gulf ports soon after the US-Israeli attack began on February 28.

US Central Command reported that over a 24-hour period “no ships made it past the US blockade and six merchant vessels complied with direction from US forces to turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman”.

Independent reports confirmed that some tankers that had been approaching the strait on Monday (13) had turned around; one tanker, the Rich Starry, reversed course again and passed through the waterway.

The closure of the strait, a gateway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows, had led to a spike in oil prices well above $100 a barrel. Crude prices dipped to about $95 after reports of a possible second round of talks on Tuesday (14).

The US treasury department has said it does not plan to renew a temporary easing of sanctions on Iranian oil aimed at easing war-related supply shocks. The initial authorisation allowed for the delivery and sale of Iranian crude and other petroleum products loaded onto ships before March 20. The step was part of a series of measures launched by the Trump administration to quell skyrocketing energy prices.

Meanwhile, Israel and Lebanon have held unprecedented negotiations in Washington about the cross-border conflict, which erupted as a consequence of the US-Israeli attack on Iran. Hezbollah sided with Iran and launched rockets at Israel, which responded with intense bombardment of Beirut and other cities, and launched an invasion of southern Lebanon.

In a statement after the two-hour session ended, the US state department praised the two sides for what it called “productive discussions on steps toward launching direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon”.

Hezbollah has said it will not abide by any agreements made by Israeli and Lebanese government negotiators in Washington.

Asked about the possible restart of US-Iranian talks, Vance appeared to be open to the possibility. “The big question from here on out is whether Iranians will have enough flexibility,” he told Fox News on Monday evening. He said Iran had shown some flexibility in Islamabad but “didn’t move far enough”.

On the question of whether there would be additional talks, he replied it was a question that would be “best put to the Iranians”.

US reports on the Islamabad talks said the key sticking point had been the demand from Vance’s delegation for a 20-year suspension of Iran’s enrichment of uranium. Iran was reportedly offering a shorter moratorium, of less than 10 years.

An Iranian official accused the US delegation of making maximalist demands at the Islamabad talks. “Iran did not surrender at the battlefield, neither will it surrender behind the table,” the official said.

It is unclear where negotiations stood when the Islamabad meeting broke up over the other major proliferation concern: Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU). It is close to weapons-grade purity and is believed to be buried in deep shafts under mountains in central Iran.

At negotiations in Geneva before the war, Iran offered to dilute the HEU, which would extend the period it would take to produce a nuclear warhead, but the US has called for its complete removal.

A Pakistani official said Iran was insisting that Vance lead the Iranian delegation to any future talks, as Tehran does not trust Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as reliable interlocutors.

Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey were in Islamabad on Tuesday for talks with Pakistani officials on the next moves in mediating the conflict.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was due to depart on Wednesday on a trip to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar to build support for the peace process, and to seek help with proposals to reopen the strait of Hormuz and discuss Iran’s demand for war reparations. Sharif’s regional tour might have to be cut short, however, if there is a quick return to the negotiating table.

-theguardian.com