There appeared to be movement toward another round of U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks Tuesday as two regional officials told The Associated Press that both countries have signaled a return to Pakistan for discussions. There was no immediate word on timing of talks.
A fragile ceasefire is set to expire. The countries have sent mixed messages, while global markets and consumers wait.
Iran’s chief negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, said
Iran wouldn't negotiate in the face of threats, and U.S. President Donald Trump had declared he was in no rush to end the conflict.
But now Pakistan-led mediators have received confirmation that the top negotiators, Qalibaf and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, are expected to arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday, regional officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Here is the latest:
In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Trump was asked directly if he’d resume strikes if there isn’t progress in the coming talks in Islamabad.
“Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” Trump said. “But, you know, we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”
The navy says it successfully conducted a live firing of the Taimoor air-launched missile.
The announcement comes amid the Pakistani navy’s ongoing efforts to escort merchant vessels transiting key routes including the Strait of Hormuz.
The Pentagon on social media says U.S. forces “conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction” and boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.” Ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The announcement described the boarding as happening overnight. It added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”
Neither the U.S. nor Iran have publicly confirmed the timing of talks. Iranian state television has denied any official is already in Pakistan’s capital.
Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, Vance and Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday, the officials told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
A two-week ceasefire is due to expire.
— Munir Ahmed and Samy Magdy
Germany’s top diplomat has called on Iran to come to Islamabad for negotiations with the U.S.
“We are now urgently calling on Iran to come to Islamabad and engage in constructive negotiations with the United States,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Tuesday on the sidelines of the European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
Wadephul pointed out that Vance is ready to travel to Pakistan and that “Iran should now take this outstretched hand in the interest of its own people.”
He also called on the American side to continue to keep its openness to negotiate with Iran.
“I believe there is still a window of opportunity to end this war through negotiations,” Wadephul said.
The German foreign minister also called on Iran “to immediately restore free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”
The conflict in the Middle East has triggered “the most severe energy crisis in a generation,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, speaking remotely from New York to a climate conference in Berlin.
The current crisis, he said, makes it clear that “fossil fuels are not just wrecking our planet, they are holding economies hostage.”
Guterres said that the energy crisis should be solved without exacerbating the climate crisis and that can be done by investing in homegrown renewables, developing the infrastructure to support them and providing financing for less developed economies to transition away from fossil fuels.
The Iran war has locked the world in much higher fossil fuel costs for months and likely years to come, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said on Tuesday in Berlin.
“Fossil fuel driven stagflation is now stalking economies, driving up prices, driving down growth, pushing budgets deeper into the quagmire of debt and stripping away governments’ policy options and autonomy,” he said.
He referred to climate change and fuel price chaos as “twin reapers” and said that climate cooperation and faster investments in clean energy were needed to overcome this challenge.
Lebanon’s public works and transport minister says 15 bridges have been damaged or destroyed during the latest war.
Fayez Rasamny told the local LBC TV channel on Tuesday that the government still doesn't have a final estimate for the damage caused by the almost seven-week Israel-Hezbollah war.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war was halted by a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect last week.
Rasamny said that he believes that the losses could be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion. He said that the government was waiting until there is a permanent ceasefire before reaching out to donors.
Israeli strikes killed at least five people in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, hospital authorities said.
Four suspected militants were killed when a drone strike hit a security point overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis, the Nasser hospital said.
Another man was wounded in the strike, it said.
Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The militant-manned point was around 4 kilometers (2½ miles) west of the so-called Yellow Line, separating the Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza, according to relatives of those killed.
In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a 30-year-old woman was killed when the Israeli navy opened fire toward tents sheltering displaced people early Tuesday, the Shifa hospital said.
The Israeli military said that it wasn’t aware of attacks in Beit Lahiya.
The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since a fragile October ceasefire deal took hold to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
Iranian state television on Tuesday issued an on-screen alert saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad ... so far” as speculation about possible talks with the United States grows.
The on-screen alert likely reflects the internal debate ongoing within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.
Iranian state television long has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy.
So far, no official has acknowledged that a delegation will be heading to Islamabad, where officials have been on standby for days now for the possible talks.
Vance is expected to lead an American team to the talks.
Iran has offered no word on who could lead its delegation.
Last time, Qalibaf led the Iranian side.
China says that it hopes all parties can maintain the momentum for peace talks, as the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war is set to expire Wednesday.
“The current situation is at a critical stage of transition between war and peace. At such a moment, it is all the more necessary for all parties to show the utmost sincerity, remain committed to a political solution, maintain the momentum of the ceasefire and negotiations,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
While it’s not directly involved in ongoing mediation efforts, diplomats have said that China had pressed for Iran to attend the first round of negotiations.
China has expressed support for Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate engagement between the United States and Iran for peace and stability in the region and beyond, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry said Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong conveyed the message during a meeting with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, where both sides discussed the latest regional developments.
Dar reaffirmed the “all-weather” Pakistan-China strategic cooperative partnership, underscoring strong bilateral ties and the importance of continued high-level exchanges, the statement said.
Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport, as U.S. and Iranian delegations are expected to arrive this week for the second round of talks, witnesses and officials said Tuesday.
Security arrangements appear stricter than those put in place during the first round of talks held in the capital on April 11 and 12, following diplomatic efforts by Pakistan and regional countries, including China, to ease tensions in the region.
Pakistan hasn't announced final dates for the talks, however.
Analysts say the scale of the security measures suggests the possibility of high-level participation if negotiations make progress.
“The arrangements this time are markedly different from those during the first round,” said Syed Mohammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst.
“Pakistan appears to be preparing for the possibility of visits by top U.S. and Iranian leaders if the talks advance to a stage where an agreement could be signed,” he told The Associated Press.
Transportation ministers from across the 27-nation European Union are meeting in Brussels Tuesday to discuss spiking energy prices because of the war in Iran, and how to protect consumers at home and at the pump after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “maybe six weeks” jet fuel supplies remaining.
“This evolving geopolitical crisis in the Middle East has highlighted that Europe may have a short-term issue in supply of fuel,” said Cyprus Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, who is chairing the virtual meeting.
He said that there is currently no crisis, but that the bloc must prepare for the possibility of shortages.
“If this ever happens, it will affect connectivity, it will affect every citizen in the union,” Vafeades said.
“We need to be ready to avoid queues at the gas stations if this ever happens.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday spoke with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty to discuss the latest regional developments, as part of a diplomatic push linked to a possible second round of talks between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said in a statement that both leaders emphasized the importance of dialogue and engagement for peace and stability and agreed to remain in close contact.
The statement gave no further details.
While Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will send a delegation late Tuesday, there has been no formal announcement from Tehran.
Trump said over the weekend that he's sending a U.S. delegation to Pakistan.
Russia’s Transport Ministry has announced that Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, “lifted recommendations for Russian airlines to temporary halt sales of tickets to flights to and from" the United Arab Emirates, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Restrictions on flights via Iranian airspace have also been lifted, the report quoted the ministry as saying in an online statement.
Flights to Iranian airports and transit flights over the country will be carried out with recommendations from local aviation authorities taken into account, the report said.
Restrictions on flights to the Middle East were introduced in February.
Iran said Tuesday that it hanged a man convicted after being accused of setting fire to a mosque in northern Tehran during nationwide protests in January.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Amir Ali Mir Jafari.
There was no immediate information about Jafari among activists who follow Iran.
Iran has been accused of repeatedly holding closed-door trials against suspects who can’t challenge the evidence against them.
Iran already has hanged people from the January protests, something that Trump had described as a red line before the recent war.
Shares are mixed in Asia and oil prices have slipped following the latest rise of U.S.-Iran tensions.
The lackluster start to trading Tuesday followed a modest retreat on Wall Street.
On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its all-time high and the Dow industrials edged less than 0.1% lower. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil remains above $95.
Trump attacked critics after a second round of talks with Iran was thrown into doubt by the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship.
Financial markets have had vicious swings, both up and down, since the war began because of uncertainty about how long it may last.
The fear is that a long-term disruption could keep so much oil and natural gas off global markets that it creates a punishing wave of inflation for the global economy.
