Trump says talks with Iran could resume soon, as US blockades Iranian ports
Officials from Pakistan, Iran and several Gulf states also said negotiating teams from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week.
Highlights:
- US blockade halts Iran's maritime trade, US military says
- Diplomatic talks may resume in Pakistan
- Iran's nuclear programme remains key sticking point
- Back-channel talks since the weekend have made progress
President Donald Trump said talks with Iran to end the war could soon resume and end in a deal, telling the world to watch out for an "amazing two days", while US forces imposing a blockade turned back vessels leaving Iranian ports.
With the prospect of US and Iranian officials returning to Pakistan for more talks, Vice President JD Vance, who led negotiations that ended on Sunday with no breakthrough, said he felt positive about where things stood.
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"I think you're going to be watching an amazing two days ahead," Trump told ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, adding he did not think it would be necessary to extend a two-week ceasefire that ends on 21 April.
"It could end either way, but I think a deal is preferable because then they can rebuild," Trump said, according to a post by Karl on X. "They really do have a different regime now. No matter what, we took out the radicals."
Officials from Pakistan, Iran and several Gulf states also said negotiating teams from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week.
Talks last weekend broke down without an agreement to end the war, which erupted on 28 February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering Iranian attacks on its Gulf neighbours and re-igniting a parallel conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump's optimism helped nudge global stocks higher with fresh record highs in view. Benchmark oil prices - having fallen on Tuesday (14 April) and early today (15 April) trade - climbed to around $96 per barrel, after the US military said its blockade had completely halted trade going into and out of Iran by sea.
More vessels were being turned back under the US blockade, including a US-sanctioned, Chinese-owned tanker Rich Starry that was making its way back to the Strait of Hormuz today after exiting the Persian Gulf.
Earlier, the US military said it had intercepted eight Iran-linked oil tankers since the start of the blockade on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A US destroyer stopped two oil tankers attempting to leave the Iranian port of Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday, a US official said.
Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported that Iran would use alternative ports to those on its southern coastline to bypass the US blockade and expand import capacity across different regions of the country.
Return to Islamabad
Trump, speaking to the New York Post on Tuesday, said his negotiators were likely to be back, thanks largely to the "great job" Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was doing to moderate the talks.
Later on Tuesday, at an event in Georgia, Vice President Vance said Trump wanted to make a "grand bargain" with Iran but there was a lot of mistrust between the two countries.
Iran's nuclear ambitions were a key sticking point at last weekend's talks. The US had proposed a 20-year suspension of all nuclear activity by Iran, while Tehran had suggested a halt of 3-5 years, according to people familiar with the proposals.
Speaking in Seoul, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the length of any moratorium on Iranian uranium enrichment was a political decision and it was possible Tehran might accept a compromise as a confidence-building measure.
The US has also pressed for any enriched nuclear material to be removed from Iran, while Tehran has demanded that international sanctions against it be lifted.
One source involved in the negotiations in Pakistan said back-channel talks since the weekend had made progress in narrowing gaps, bringing the two sides closer to a deal that could be put forward at a new round of talks.
However, complicating peace efforts, Israel has continued to attack Lebanon as it targets Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group.
Israel and the US say that campaign is not covered by the ceasefire, while Iran insists it is.
Fallout of the war
The war has prompted Iran to effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz - a vital artery for global crude and gas shipments - to ships other than its own, sharply reducing exports from the Gulf, particularly to Asia and Europe, and leaving energy importers scrambling for alternative supplies.
The International Monetary Fund cut its growth outlook on Tuesday due to energy price spikes driven by the conflict, warning that its worst‑case scenario could push the global economy to the brink of recession.
The oil market also faces further supply losses, as the US does not plan to renew a 30-day waiver of sanctions on Iranian oil at sea that expires this week, according to two US officials, and quietly let a similar waiver on Russian oil run out on the weekend.
An estimated 5,000 people have been killed in the fighting, including about 3,000 in Iran and 2,000 in Lebanon.
The governor of Iran's Tehran province said many of those killed were students, women, teachers and university professors.
About 40,000 homes in the province were damaged, he said, while schools, clinics and emergency services were also targeted in the attacks, state media today reported him as saying.
