ISLAMABAD – Efforts to broker a ceasefire between the United States and Iran hit a dead end after Tehran’s chief diplomat departed from Pakistan, and President Donald Trump directed his representatives to avoid traveling to Islamabad.
President Trump emphasized that the next move rested with Iran.
“If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” he posted on social media.
The discussions were intended to build on groundbreaking direct talks earlier this month, which saw the U.S., represented by Vice President JD Vance, engage with Iran, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
However, Iranian leaders have expressed skepticism about U.S. intentions, especially after American forces began blockading Iranian ports in retaliation for Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
According to two Pakistani officials, who spoke anonymously to The Associated Press due to a lack of authorization to comment publicly, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, on Saturday evening.
Araghchi went on to Oman, on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz and a country that had mediated peace talks in the past. He said he would return to Pakistan again on Sunday before heading to Russia, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
“Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,” Araghchi said on social media about his talks in Pakistan about what he called Iran’s red lines for negotiations.
Meanwhile, another ceasefire — between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah group — was shaken on Saturday as each side fired at the other and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.”
Iran had said any talks would be indirect
Last week, Trump announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran. It has paused most fighting, but the economic fallout is growing, two months into the war as global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies are disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Both sides have continued to make military threats. Iran’s joint military command on Saturday warned that “if the U.S. continues its aggressive military actions, including naval blockades, banditry, and piracy” it will face a “strong response.”
Even before Saturday’s developments, Iran’s foreign ministry said any talks would be indirect and that Pakistani officials would act as go-betweens.
Trump later told journalists that within 10 minutes of him canceling the trip to Pakistan of his envoys — Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — that Iran had sent a “much better” proposal. He did no elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.”
Contentious points in talks also include Iran’s enriched uranium and the Strait of Hormuz standoff, as well as concerns about Iran’s missile program and its support for armed proxies in the region.
Tehran has noted that indirect talks with the U.S. last year and early this year over its nuclear program, the issue long at the center of tensions, ended with Iran being attacked by the U.S. and Israel, adding to its wariness.
The standoff around the strait continues
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is nearly 50% higher than when the war began because of Iran’s grip on the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.
Iran attacked three ships last week, while the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.
Also Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s international airport for the first time since the war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. Flights were scheduled to depart for Istanbul, Oman’s capital of Muscat and the Saudi city of Medina, according to state-run television.
A growing toll even as ceasefires hold
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,496 people in Lebanon, where the Israel-Hezbollah fighting resumed two days after the Iran war started. Also, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.
But Israel struck southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least six people it said were Hezbollah militants, and several rockets and drones were launched at Israel from Lebanon.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
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