IRAN COULD RESUME TALKS THIS WEEK
Diplomatic engagement may continue despite US blockade
An Israeli military vehicle is seen Tuesday near destroyed buildings in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel.
WAR IN MIDDLE EAST
ISLAMABAD — Talks to end the Iran war could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.
Gulf, Pakistani and Iranian officials also said negotiating teams from the U.S. and Iran could return to Pakistan this week, though one senior Iranian source said no date was set.
"You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we're more inclined to go there," Trump told the New York Post.
While the U.S. 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, raising doubts over the survival of a two-week ceasefire that still has a week to run. Among the slew of issues at stake were access to the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's nuclear program and international sanctions on Tehran.
Since the United States and Israel began the war Feb. 28, Iran effectively shut the strait to almost all vessels except its own, saying passage would be permitted only under Iranian control and subject to a fee. Almost a fifth of global oil and gas supplies previously flowed through the narrow waterway, making the fallout from its closure widespread.
In a countermeasure, the U.S. military said it 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 neighbors' ports.
Shipping data showed at least three Iran-linked tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz that were not heading to or from Iranian ports.
IMF cuts outlook
The latest measures have further clouded the outlook for global energy security and the supply of goods that rely on petroleum.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund cut its growth outlook, citing price spikes and supply disruptions driven by the war, and said the global economy would teeter on the brink of recession if the conflict worsens and oil stays above $100 per barrel through 2027.
The International Energy Agency sharply cut its forecasts for global oil supply and demand growth, saying both are now expected to fall from 2025 levels.
The United States' NATO allies including Britain and France said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, though they have offered to help safeguard the strait by drawing together a defensive multilateral mission to assist when an agreement is in place.
China, the main buyer of Iranian oil, said the U.S. blockade was "dangerous and irresponsible" and would only aggravate tensions.
Nuclear demands
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who led Washington's delegation opposite Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Monday that Iranian negotiators showed some movement but fell short. 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.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar echoed that position Tuesday, in Jerusalem.
"We will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons," he said. "The enriched materials must be removed from Iran."
Complicating Pakistan's efforts to mediate an end to the war, Israel continued targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel and the United States claim that campaign is not covered by the ceasefire, while Iran claims it is.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted a meeting between envoys for Israel and Lebanon, the first time the two countries engaged in direct negotiations since 1983.
Lebanon sought a ceasefire to end Israeli strikes that have killed more than 2,000 people and forced 1.2 million from their homes, while Israel pressed for Beirut to disarm Hezbollah.
The U.S. State Department said afterward that the two sides agreed to continue their talks. Israel's ambassador to the U.S. said he was hopeful the Lebanese government wanted to reduce Hezbollah's influence, while Lebanon's ambassador to the U.S. said in a statement that the meeting was "constructive," and the date and location of the next meeting would be announced in due course. Lebanon's government sought the negotiations despite objections from Hezbollah, which Israel wants to see disarmed before any peace deal.
Ceasefire
With the war unpopular at home and rising energy prices causing political blowback, Trump paused the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign last week after threatening to destroy Iran's "whole civilization" unless it reopened the strait.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted April 10-12, after the ceasefire was announced, showed 35% of Americans approve of U.S. strikes against Iran, down from 37% a week earlier.
An Iranian military spokesperson called any U.S. restrictions on international shipping "piracy," warning that if Iranian ports were threatened, no port in the Gulf or Gulf of Oman would be secure.
Trump claimed Iran's navy was "completely obliterated" during the war, adding that only a small number of "fast-attack ships" remained.
"Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED," Trump wrote on social media.
The U.S. military's Central Command said the blockade would be enforced on vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports in the Gulf and Gulf of Oman. It would not impede neutral transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian destinations, it said in a note to seafarers.
