US and Iran signal new ceasefire talks in Islamabad as truce nears end

Earlier in the day, two regional officials said Washington and Tehran had indicated they would hold a second round of talks, with Vance leading the US team and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as top negotiator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

But Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said later Tuesday on X that Iran had not formally confirmed its participation, which was set to end on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iranian state television that “no final decision” has been made on whether to attend due to “unacceptable actions” by the US, apparently referring to the recent blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Vance had scheduled policy meetings at the White House on Wednesday morning, said a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The vice president’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to messages asking whether Vance still plans to travel to Pakistan.

Trump says he is not in favor of extending the ceasefire

Both sides remain rhetorically entrenched. US President Donald Trump has warned that “a lot of bombs” are “going to explode” if there is no deal before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator said Tehran has “new maps on the battlefield” that have not yet been revealed.

The ceasefire, which began on April 8, could be extended if talks resume, although Trump said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday: “Well, I don’t want to do that.”

“We don’t have that much time,” Trump said, adding that Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate.”

White House officials have said Vance would lead the U.S. delegation, but Iran has not said who might send it. Iranian state television broadcast a message on Tuesday saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad so far.”

The US says its forces are boarding a sanctioned oil tanker

On Tuesday, the US said its troops had boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude in Asia.

The Pentagon said in a social media post that U.S. troops boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.”

The US military did not say where the ship was boarded, although tracking data from the ship showed on Tuesday that the Tifani was in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The Pentagon statement added that “international waters are not a place of refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

The US military seized an Iranian container ship on Sunday, 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.

Control key in the Strait of Hormuz for the negotiations

The US imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran to end its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route through which 20 percent of the world’s natural gas and crude oil passes in peacetime.

Iran’s grip on the strait has caused oil prices to rise. Brent crude, the international standard, traded at nearly $95 a barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30 percent from February 28, the day Israel and the US attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war started, the Strait of Hormuz was fully open to international shipping. Trump has demanded that ships can sail unhindered again.

European Union transport ministers met 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 left.

Iran said this weekend that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide rift between the sides remains. Issues that derailed the latest round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional allies and the straits.

Qalibaf on Tuesday accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender.

“We will not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” he wrote in an X-post.

The hopeful talks in Pakistan will continue

Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation to resume talks that mark the highest-level negotiations between the US and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first round on April 11 and 12 ended without a deal.

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met the acting US ambassador in Islamabad on Tuesday to push for an extension of the ceasefire. Dar also met with the ambassador from China, an important trading partner of Iran.

Security has been tightened in the Pakistani capital, with authorities deploying thousands of personnel and stepping up patrols along routes to the airport.

Israel jails soldiers for damaging the statue of Jesus in Lebanon

The Israeli army said Tuesday it has sentenced two soldiers to 30 days in prison and removed them from combat duty for vandalizing a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon. Images of an Israeli soldier smashing the statue’s head with a sledgehammer emerged over the weekend, sparking widespread condemnation.

Israel said one of the punished soldiers smashed the statue to the ground. The other filmed the destruction. The Israeli military said it has replaced the statue.

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon were expected to resume in Washington on Thursday, an Israeli, a Lebanese and a US official said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes negotiations.

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 deal with Lebanon.

A 10-day ceasefire began in Lebanon on Friday, where fighting broke out between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants two days after the US and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran to start the war. More than 2,290 people have been killed in fighting in Lebanon.

At least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the war, according to authorities. In addition, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in the Arab Gulf states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and thirteen American soldiers across the region have been killed.

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