Iran’s chief diplomat heads to Pakistan, lifting hopes peace talks may resume

DUBAI/WASHINGTON – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected in Islamabad late on April 24, raising hopes for a second round of peace talks with the US.

Iranian media said Mr Araghchi was on a “regional tour” and would also visit Oman and Russia.

Two Pakistani government sources said Mr Araghchi’s visit could signal the resumption of peace talks with the US, although this had yet to be confirmed.

Washington’s response was also still awaited, but a US logistics and security team was already in place for potential talks.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a news conference that Iran has a chance to make a “good deal” with the US.

The last round of peace talks was expected on April 21, but it did not take place. Iran said then that it was not yet ready to commit to attending, and a US delegation led by Vice-President J.D. Vance never left Washington.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire on April 21 at the 11th hour to allow more time to reconvene the negotiators.

On April 23, Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a meeting at the White House brokered by Mr Trump. Iran considers maintaining the ceasefire in Lebanon a precondition for talks with the US on the wider war.

The US leader said he was in no rush to reach a peace agreement and wanted it to be “everlasting”.

He continued to assert that the US had a clear upper hand in the naval stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz, even though the US has yet to find a way to open the strategic waterway.

Iran has prevented nearly all ships, apart from its own, from sailing through the strait since the start of the war eight weeks ago.

It showed off its control by seizing two huge cargo vessels there.

Mr Trump imposed a separate blockade of Iranian shipping last week, with US forces boarding several Iranian ships in international waters.

Mr Hegseth said on April 24 the blockade “is growing and going global”.

“No one sails from the Strait of Hormuz to anywhere in the world without the permission of the United States Navy,” he said.

Iran has said it will not reopen Hormuz until Mr Trump lifts his blockade.

Only five ships crossed the strait in over 24 hours, shipping data showed on April 24, compared with around 130 a day before the war. Those included one Iranian oil tanker, but none of the vast crude-carrying supertankers that normally feed global energy markets.

Mr Trump dismissed the threat posed by Iran’s “little wise-guy ships”.

On April 23, he said the US Navy has orders to “shoot and kill” Iranian boats laying mines in the strait and that the US could knock out in a day any refurbishing of weapons that Iran might have made during a ceasefire in place since April 8.

But the Iranian capture of two huge cargo ships was a reminder that the US was struggling to keep control of the strait, and Tehran continued to cause trouble for oil markets and pose major strains to the global economy.

Oil prices resumed their rise on April 24 with the blockade of the strait unresolved and the fate of the lapsed ceasefire unclear.

The US dollar was moving closely with oil prices, on track for its first weekly gain in three weeks, with dampened hopes for an immediate easing of tensions leading to increased safe-haven demand.

Iranian unity

Iran’s use of a swarm of small, fast boats to seize the container ships cast doubts on Mr Trump’s suggestions that US forces had disabled its naval threats and underscored Tehran’s evolving tactics in the strait as it countered US interception of Iran-linked oil tankers and other vessels.

Iran’s supreme leader, Mr Mojtaba Khamenei, on April 23 rejected Mr Trump’s claim of disarray in the leadership, describing it as “the enemy’s media operations” to maliciously undermine Iranian unity and security.

“Unity will become stronger and more solid, and enemies will become weaker and more humiliated,” he said in a post on social media platform X, as he remained out of the public eye since taking over from his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the early days of the war that began on Feb 28.

The prolonged conflict has deepened the fissure between the US and NATO, with Mr Trump repeatedly criticising members for failing to support US operations.

Washington is now weighing punishing “difficult” countries, such as Spain, according to policy options being reviewed on the bloc, a US official told Reuters.

The options are detailed in a note expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the US access, basing and overflight rights for the Iran war, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Trump said this week that he would indefinitely extend what had been a two-week ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks. “Don’t rush me,” he said when asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal. “I want to make the best deal... I want to have it everlasting.”

He ruled out the use of nuclear weapons, telling reporters that they were unnecessary because the US had “decimated” Iran with conventional arms.

“No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody,” Mr Trump said when asked by a reporter at the White House.

Deadly week

The war in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March to root out Iran’s Hezbollah allies after the militant group fired across the border, has run in parallel with the wider Iran war, and Tehran says a ceasefire there is a precondition for talks.

The extension of the ceasefire in Lebanon followed some of the deadliest days there since an earlier deal on April 16 to halt fighting.

Israeli forces pounded Hezbollah targets on April 23 in southern Lebanon after they said militants had attacked troops with rockets and a drone, and fired rockets towards northern Israel.

Israel has sought to make common cause with Lebanon’s government over Hezbollah, which was founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.

The group was not present at the ceasefire talks in Washington. REUTERS