US president Donald Trump has indicated that talks with Iran on ending the war could resume in Pakistan this week, following the collapse of weekend negotiations that prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.
Speaking to the New York Post, Trump said: “something could be happening over the next two days”.
In what appears to be the first significant Iranian concession regarding its nuclear programme, Tehran has reportedly agreed to suspend uranium enrichment for up to five years. However, according to The New York Times, Trump has rejected the Iranian proposal.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said the US and Israel have set the removal of Iran’s enriched uranium as a threshold condition for ending the war, which was launched by the US and Israel on February 28th.
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Katz said the recent attacks and the 12-day conflict in June had destroyed Iran’s nuclear programme and its ability to produce nuclear weapons. However, he said: “The enriched material could serve as the basis for an [Iranian] attempt to restart the nuclear programme.”
The US military says more than 10,000 service members, a dozen warships, and dozens of aircraft are participating in its naval blockade on Iran, which began on Monday after the talks in Islamabad ended.
US central command (Centcom) said that in the first 24 hours, no ships had made it past the US blockade. However, there were reports that at least four Iran-linked vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz, including two that reportedly came from Iranian ports. The US military said it will not impede ships using the strategic waterway to go to and from non-Iranian ports.
Iran, which has said the blockade is a violation of its sovereignty, is considering a temporary pause in its shipping through the channel to avoid an immediate escalation. Bloomberg reported that Tehran wishes to avoid testing the blockade while negotiations with Washington are ongoing and is considering a maritime activity hiatus for several days.
International leaders will gather in Paris on Friday to discuss the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. They will be hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister Keir Starmer. A British spokesperson said the summit “will advance work towards a co-ordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard international shipping once the conflict ends”.
[ US blockade of Iran is risky escalation but peace still has a chanceOpens in new window ]
Mossad chief David Barnea has said Israel’s campaign in Iran will only end when the country’s “extremist regime is replaced,” drawing comparisons between it and the Holocaust.
“That regime, which seeks our destruction, must pass from the world,” he said at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Jerusalem.
The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the US held talks in Washington on Tuesday, hosted by US secretary of state Marco Rubio who described the meeting as a historic opportunity.
Rubio said the negotiators understand they are working against decades of complexities that won’t be resolved in six hours of talks, but the hope is to outline a framework for a permanent, lasting peace.
Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun said he hopes the talks will mark the “beginning of the end” of Lebanon’s suffering, but warned that stability “will not return” to southern Lebanon if Israel “continues its occupation”.
While Israel is focusing on the disarmament of Hizbullah along with an eventual peace treaty with Lebanon, Beirut’s top priority is a ceasefire. Israel has ruled out a ceasefire, although it has stopped attacks in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon while maintaining its offensive against Hizbullah fighters in south Lebanon.
The Iran-back Hizbullah responded to the recent US-Israeli attacks on Iran by launching rockets and drones at northern Israel. At least 2,124 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to its health ministry. More than one million people are displaced.
Although the Beirut government committed in the November 2024 ceasefire agreement with Israel to disarm Hizbullah, it will not engage with the powerful militia, fearing another civil war. Hizbullah opposes the peace talks and is unlikely to stop its attacks on Israel without an order from Iran.
The Lebanese government made it clear during the talks that they no longer want to be “occupied” by Hizbullah and that there were conversations about long-term vision for clearly delineated border, Israel’s ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter told reporters. – Additional reporting: Reuters
