United States President Donald Trump has claimed a second round of negotiations with Iran will take place in Pakistan on Tuesday as mediators try to revive negotiations before the end of an ongoing yet fragile two-week ceasefire.
The announcement on Sunday came alongside a sharp escalation in rhetoric. Trump warned that Iran must agree to a deal “one way or another – the nice way or the hard way” and threatened to target key infrastructure if negotiations fail. He also renewed his threat of striking “bridges and power plants”, which experts said could amount to war crimes under international law.
Iran, however, has so far denied it will participate in the talks, accusing the US of “ armed piracy” after US forces struck and seized an Iran-linked tanker on Sunday, further heightening tensions between the longtime adversaries.
What has the US said?
On Sunday, Trump announced that US negotiators would travel to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday for talks aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran.
In a social media post, the president did not say which officials would be sent to the talks. Last weekend’s first round of talks, at which Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation, ended without a deal.
Trump accused Iran of violating their two-week ceasefire, which is due to expire on Wednesday, by opening fire on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz. The US president threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran if it doesn’t accept the terms of the deal being offered by the US.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable deal, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
In a further escalation, Trump said an Iranian-flagged ship called the Touska was “stopped” by US forces in the Gulf of Oman “by blowing a hole in the engine room”. He said it was trying to get past the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.
US forces boarded the ship and took physical control of the vessel.
How has Iran responded?
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military headquarters confirmed the US attack on the Iranian-flagged tanker and said it would “respond soon”.
Then, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported that Iranian forces had sent drones in the direction of US military ships.
Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee, told Al Jazeera that Iran’s actions during talks with the US are strictly guided by national interests and security.
When asked if Tehran intends to participate in the talks in Islamabad, he said, “Iran acts based on national interests.”
“We see the current negotiations as a continuation of the battlefield, and we see nothing other than the battlefield in this,” he said. “If it yields achievements that sustain those of the battlefield, then the negotiation arena is also an opportunity for us … but not if the Americans intend to turn this into a field of excessive demands based on their bullying approach.”
What are the key points of friction now?
Since the start of the war on February 28, a number of new sticking points have emerged – alongside old challenges:
Strait of Hormuz
A central dispute is over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route linking the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. One-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were shipped through the strait before the war began.
Iran insists on sovereignty over the waterway, which lies within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman and does not fall into international waters, and stated that only “nonhostile” ships could pass. It has also floated the idea of levying tolls while Washington demands full freedom of navigation.
