With a U.S.-Iran ceasefire set to expire Wednesday, renewed talks set to begin in Pakistan as soon as Tuesday remain on shaky footing, and Iranian officials are threatening to forgo them entirely after the U.S. military seized an Iranian-flagged vessel over the weekend attempting to defy the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.
“So far, we have not made any decisions regarding the next round of negotiations,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at his Monday news conference. Both sides accuse the other of ceasefire violations.
U.S. representatives are set to arrive in Pakistan on Monday for talks as soon as Tuesday. The United States said it was sending Vice President JD Vance, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. As of late Monday morning, Vance had yet to depart for Pakistan, said a person familiar with his plans, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive information. “The U.S. delegation plans to travel to Islamabad soon,” the person said.
Iranian state media reported Sunday that Tehran had “rejected” the second round of talks and said its “absence” at the talks was because of “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade.” It was not immediately clear whether a decision was final: Iranian officials made similar statements in the lead-up to the first round of negotiations, also held in Pakistan.
In spite of the uncertainty, the Pakistani capital continued gearing up for delegations to arrive, tightening security around some buildings expected to hold negotiations and shutting roads leading in and out of Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave.
Oil prices jumped by 5 percent overnight into Monday, while stock markets in Europe were down, after a weekend of uncertainty and escalating tensions.
Some public statements from Iranian officials in recent days suggest growing support within Iran’s leadership for a negotiated end to the war. “Continuing the conflict benefits no one,” Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday. Iranian leadership is seeking an end to the war with “honor, wisdom, and prudence,” he said, according to his remarks carried by state media. Pezeshkian is affiliated with Iran’s reformist party and over the course of the conflict has presented a more moderate stance on the war compared with other Iranian officials.
Tensions flared after President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. military had seized the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska that was attempting to bypass the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier in the day, Trump had renewed his threat of widespread attacks on Iran’s infrastructure if no deal was reached in talks this week.
Before the recent escalation, both Trump and Iran on Friday were celebrating the reopening of the Strait, whose closure has left some 20,000 seafarers stranded on idle ships for more than seven weeks.
Trump said Friday that “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again” — but only a day later, Tehran said it was closed again, citing a continued U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports that Trump is using to pressure Tehran.
The U.S. seizure of the Touska was the first time U.S. forces have boarded a ship since the naval blockade took effect April 13. The Touska is owned by an Iranian company that the United States has accused of procuring material for Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
On Monday, Iran’s top military headquarters, Khatam al-Anbiya, said it warned that the Iranian armed forces “will soon respond to and retaliate for this act of piracy.”
U.S. Central Command said its move to seize the vessel came after six hours of warnings to the Touska to turn back and its later warning to evacuate the engine room.
In an overnight post to social media, Central Command released video showing the operation to take the Touska after its engine room was hit and disabled by rounds fired Sunday from the destroyer USS Spruance. Marines from the Okinawa, Japan-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit then flew by helicopter from the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and rappelled onto the deck of the Touska and took the ship into U.S. custody.
“The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom. Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel,” Trump wrote Sunday in a Truth Social post.
U.S. gas prices at the pump remain high: above $4 per gallon on average Monday, according to AAA.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN on Sunday that gas prices might not drop back below $3 “until next year” because of the disruption caused by the war.
“I don’t know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year,” Wright said.
On Monday, Trump said Wright was “totally wrong.” Gas prices will drop “as soon as this ends,” Trump told a reporter for the Hill in a brief phone interview.
Westfall reported from Tel Aviv and George from Islamabad, Pakistan. Tara Copp in Washington and Siham Shamalakh in Cairo contributed to this report.
The post Iran talks on shaky footing after U.S. seizure of ship in Strait of Hormuz appeared first on Washington Post.
