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WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD – Iran’s top negotiator said recent talks with the US had made progress but gaps remained over nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz, while President Donald Trump cited “very good conversations” with Tehran despite warning against “blackmail” over the key shipping channel.
Neither side offered any specifics about the state of negotiations on April 18, days before a fragile ceasefire in the US-Israeli war against Iran is set to expire.
The war, now in its eighth week, has killed thousands, spread to Israeli attacks in Lebanon and sent oil prices surging because of the de facto closure of the strait, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.
“We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” Iran’s chief negotiator, Mr Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, told state media, referring to talks last weekend.
“There are some issues on which we insist … They also have red lines. But these issues could be just one or two.”
Mr Trump said the US was having “very good conversations” but gave no other details.
Tehran reversed course on April 18 to reassert control over the strait, again closing the energy choke point and adding fresh uncertainty to the war, which the US and Israel launched on Feb 28.
Iran said it was responding to a continued US blockade of Iranian ports, calling it a violation of the ceasefire, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran’s navy was ready to inflict “new bitter defeats” on its enemies.
Mr Trump called the move “blackmail” even as he praised the talks.
On April 17, Iran had announced the temporary reopening of the Strait of Hormuz following a separate US-brokered 10-day ceasefire agreement on April 16 between Israel and Lebanon.
Mr Trump defended the US blockade and threatened “to start dropping bombs again” unless the countries reached a long-term deal before the ceasefire expires on April 22.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Tehran’s control over the strait included demanding the payment of costs related to security, safety and environmental protection services, state media said.
Concern remained after at least two vessels reported being attacked on April 19 while trying to transit the waterway. India summoned the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi and expressed deep concern that two Indian-flagged ships had come under fire in the strait, the government said.
US Central Command said American forces were enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran but did not comment on the latest Iranian actions.
Tehran’s reversal raised the risk that oil and gas shipments through the strait could remain disrupted just as Mr Trump weighs whether to extend the ceasefire.
When American and Iranian negotiators met last weekend in Islamabad, the US proposed a 20-year suspension of all Iranian nuclear activity, while Iran suggested a halt of three to five years, according to people familiar with the proposals.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Mr Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date had been set for the next round of negotiations, adding that a framework of understanding must be agreed first.
Mr Trump had said on April 17 there could be talks this weekend and that the two sides were “very close to making a deal”.
There were no signs on April 18 of preparations for new talks in the Pakistani capital, where the highest-level US-Iran negotiations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended without agreement last weekend.
Senior national security aides gathered at the White House on the morning of April 18. Mr Trump later went to the Trump National Golf Club with top envoy Steve Witkoff, one of his Iran negotiators.
Pressure for a way out of the war has mounted as Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections with US gasoline prices high, inflation rising and his own approval ratings down.
Oil prices fell about 10 per cent and global stocks jumped on April 17 on the prospect of marine traffic resuming through the strait.
But hundreds of vessels and about 20,000 seafarers remain stranded in the Gulf awaiting passage through the waterway, shipping sources said.