Iran has no plans to engage in talks with the United States on Monday, according to state media reports, following President Donald Trump's decision to send US negotiators to Pakistan just days before the ceasefire in the Middle East is set to expire.
The US blockade of Iranian ports remains a major point of contention, and the situation has been further complicated by Trump's announcement on Sunday that an American destroyer had fired on and hit an Iranian ship that attempted to evade it.
State broadcaster IRIB cited Iranian sources as stating that there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks, while the Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that anonymous sources described the overall atmosphere as not very positive.
The news agencies also noted that lifting the US blockade is a precondition for negotiations, a sentiment echoed by state-run IRNA, which pointed to the blockade and Washington's unreasonable demands as major obstacles to fruitful negotiations.
Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just three days away from the end of the two-week ceasefire that brought an end to the Middle East war, which was sparked by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
So far, only one negotiating session has been held, a 21-hour meeting in Islamabad on April 11 that ended without a conclusive outcome, although groundwork for fresh talks has continued in the meantime.
Trump expressed hope that Iran would accept his proposed deal, describing it as very fair and reasonable, while also renewing his threats against Iran's infrastructure if an agreement is not reached.
The US has been under pressure to find a way out of the conflict since Tehran moved to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that is a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas in peacetime.
The closure of the strait has had a significant impact on the global economy and markets, and Trump has attempted to counter this by imposing a US naval blockade on Iranian ports in an effort to cut off Tehran's oil revenues.
On Sunday, Trump announced that a US destroyer had warned an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, the Touska, to stop, and had then forced it to do so by firing on its engine room, with the vessel now under the custody of US Marines.
The Touska is under US Treasury sanctions due to its prior history of illegal activity, according to Trump, who said that any attempt by Iran to reopen the strait without permission would be met with force.
Iran had briefly reopened the strait on Friday in recognition of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again the following day in response to the US maintaining its blockade.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that any vessel attempting to pass through the strait without permission would be targeted, and Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the blockade as a violation of the ceasefire and illegal collective punishment of the Iranian people.
A handful of oil and gas tankers had crossed the strait during the brief reopening, but by Sunday morning the waterway was empty of shipping, with several incidents involving Iranian fire and threats towards commercial vessels demonstrating the danger of attempting to cross.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the talks in Pakistan, security has been visibly stepped up in Islamabad, with authorities announcing road closures and traffic restrictions across the city and in neighbouring Rawalpindi.
Citizens have been requested to cooperate with security agencies, according to a city official, as the US president's negotiators, led by Vice President JD Vance and including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, prepare to arrive in the Pakistani capital on Monday evening.
A major issue in the negotiations has been Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, with Trump claiming on Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over its roughly 440 kilogrammes of enriched uranium.
However, Iran's foreign ministry has said that the stockpile, which is thought to be buried deep under rubble from US bombing in last June's 12-day war, would not be transferred anywhere, and that surrendering it to the US has never been raised in negotiations.
On Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian questioned why Iran should give up its legal right to a nuclear programme, amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the US.
Comments
Please login to leave a comment.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!