Diplomats worked through back channels Wednesday to arrange a new round of talks between the United States and Iran after Washington enacted its blockade of Iranian ports, while Tehran threatened to strike targets across the war-weary region.
US President Donald Trump said a second round of talks could happen "over the next two days," telling the New York Post the negotiations could be held again in the capital of Pakistan.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres concurred, saying it’s "highly probable" that talks will restart. He cited a meeting he had with Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar.
US Correspondent Logan Church explained what made the talks historic, as the US military claimed that it has successfully begun to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports. (Source: Breakfast)
An initial round of talks aimed at permanently ending the conflict failed to produce an agreement last weekend. The White House said Iran's nuclear ambitions were a central sticking point.
Though the ceasefire appeared to hold, the showdown over the Strait of Hormuz risked reigniting hostilities and deepening the regional war's economic fallout.
Meanwhile in Washington, direct talks between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the US began, the first such negotiations in decades.
Pakistan proposes second round of Iran talks
Pakistan has proposed hosting a second round of US-Iran talks. Two US officials said Monday that discussions were still underway about the negotiations.
A diplomat from one of the mediating countries said that Tehran and Washington had agreed to the talks. The US officials and the diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations.
The location, timing and composition of the delegations had not been decided, although Islamabad and Geneva are being considered as host cities, they said.
The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region.
The fighting has killed at least 3000 people in Iran, more than 2000 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
Tankers turned around after blockade took effect
The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash flow that's been vital to keeping Iran running.
Both the nature of enforcement and the extent to which ships will comply remained unclear during the first full day of the blockade Tuesday. Tankers approaching the strait Monday turned around shortly after it took effect, though one reversed course again and transited the waterway.
The tanker Rich Starry had been waiting off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to shipping data firm Lloyd's List, which cited data from the energy cargo-tracking firm Vortexa. It was not immediately clear whether the tanker had earlier docked in Iran. Yet it was listed by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as linked to Iranian shipping.
Lloyd's List, citing ship registry and tracking data, reported that the vessel is owned by a Chinese shipping company and ultimately bound for China.
US Central Command said no ships made it past the blockade in the first 24 hours, while six merchant vessels complied with direction from US forces to turn around and re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Chinese tankers will not be allowed passage through the strait. "So they're not going to be able to get their oil," he told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of IMF-World Bank meetings.
In rare public criticism seemingly directed at Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping said nations should "oppose the world's retrogression to the law of the jungle". Speaking during a reception for the Spanish prime minister, Xi said nations should work to "jointly safeguard genuine multilateralism".
Since the start of the war, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels avoiding the waterway.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.
Trump said Tuesday that Iran's control of the strait amounted to blackmail and extortion as the US blockade took effect. He said in a social media post that Iran’s navy had been "completely obliterated," but it still had "fast attack ships".
He warned that "if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED."
Iran threatened to retaliate against Persian Gulf ports if attacked.
"If you fight, we will fight," Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in a statement addressed to Trump.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-chair a conference Friday for nations willing to deploy warships to escort oil tankers and container ships through the strait. The deployment will happen "when security conditions allow," Macron's office said Tuesday.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including a surprise run from a former All Blacks captain, and Air NZ reveals the cost of its latest sleep innovation. (Source: 1News)
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