The United States and Iran have signalled they will hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Islamabad, two regional officials said, as leaders on both sides warned they were prepared for more fighting if a fragile two-week truce expires without a deal.
Neither the US nor Iran has publicly confirmed the timing of the talks, with Iranian state television denying any official was already in Pakistan’s capital.
Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, US vice president JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early on Wednesday to lead their teams in the talks, the officials told The Associated Press.
A ceasefire that began on April 8 is set to expire on Wednesday.
Both sides remain dug in rhetorically, with US President Donald Trump warning that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there is no agreement before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator saying that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that have not yet been revealed.
The ceasefire could be extended if talks resume, though Mr Trump said in an interview on Tuesday with CNBC: “Well, I don’t want to do that.”
“We don’t have that much time,” he said, adding that Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate”.
During his CNBC interview, Mr Trump confirmed that he is considering the possibility of a currency swap with the United Arab Emirates to help the Middle East ally secure US dollars, as its oil-rich economy has been rattled by the Iran conflict.
The president expressed surprise that the nation needs assistance, but made clear he was open to the prospect of making the move to help meet his ally’s concerns.
While it has been able to send some of its oil out via a pipeline to the Gulf of Oman, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has squeezed the country’s oil exports.
White House officials have said that Mr Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran has not said who it might send, and Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad… so far”.
Iranian state TV has long been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy, and the on-screen alert likely reflects the ongoing internal debate within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the US navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.
On Tuesday, the US said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in Asia.
The Pentagon said in a social media post that US forces boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident”.
The US military did not say where the vessel had been boarded, though ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday.
The statement added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels”.
The US military on Sunday seized an Iranian cargo vessel, the first interception under a blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.
The US imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.
Iran’s iron grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring, and Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at close to 95 dollars per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from February 28, the day that Israel and the US attacked Iran to start the war.
Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping, and Mr Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded through the waterway.
European Union transportation ministers were meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how to protect consumers after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “ maybe six weeks” of jet fuel supplies remaining.
Over the weekend, Iran said that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide gap remains between the sides.
Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, its regional proxies and the strait.
Mr Qalibaf on Tuesday accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender and said that on the contrary, Iran has been preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield”.
“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” he wrote in an X post.
Despite the rhetorical skirmishing between the two sides, Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation late on Tuesday so that the talks could resume.
Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday spoke with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty to discuss the latest regional developments, as part of diplomatic preparations, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Mr Dar also met with the ambassador from China, which is a key trading partner with Iran, as the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said that the conflict was 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,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun 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.
Israel’s military said it has sentenced two soldiers to 30 days in jail and removed them from combat duty for smashing a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon.
Images of an Israeli soldier with a sledgehammer smashing the statue’s head emerged over the weekend, bringing widespread condemnation.
Israel said one of the soldiers being punished hammered the statue to the ground.
The other filmed the destruction.
Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to resume on Thursday in Washington, an Israeli, a Lebanese and a US official said.
The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades.
Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.
A 10-day ceasefire began on Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran to start the war.
Fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 2,290 people.
Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities.
Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states.
Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.