A member of Pakistani safety personnel appears over a checkpoint from a police sales space amid heightened safety forward of a possible assembly between U.S. and Iranian officers on April 20, 2026 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Rebecca Conway/Getty Photos
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Rebecca Conway/Getty Photos
Vice President Vance is predicted to journey to Islamabad quickly to steer a U.S. delegation for a second spherical of peace talks with Iran forward of the expiration of a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday.
However the prospects for renewed diplomacy stay unclear. Iranian state media stated Tuesday that no Iranian delegations have traveled to Islamabad “so far,” whereas President Trump informed Bloomberg Information on Monday {that a} renewal of the ceasefire was “highly unlikely.”
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, accused the US late Monday of forcing Iran to the negotiating desk and stated that quite the opposite, Iran has been getting ready “to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”
“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” Qalibaf wrote in a submit on social media.
Representatives from greater than a dozen overseas diplomatic missions, United Nations workplaces, and the media view harm at websites beforehand focused by US-Israeli strikes, on April 20, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.
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Majid Saeedi/Getty Photos Europe
Officers in Islamabad say town stays able to host the talks, although Pakistan’s authorities has given no formal indication concerning the standing of its ongoing mediation efforts.
The primary spherical of talks, held simply over every week in the past in Islamabad, ended with out an settlement. Vance later accused Iran of refusing to simply accept Washington’s phrases on Iran’s plans for nuclear enrichment.
With President Trump saying the Iran ceasefire will expire Wednesday night Jap time, listed below are the primary sticking factors within the negotiations:
What’s the U.S. asking Iran to do?
For officers in Washington, the details of rivalry stay management over the Strait of Hormuz and the way forward for Iran’s nuclear program.
The Trump administration has stated it desires business transport by the strategic waterway to be totally restored. Round 20% of the world’s crude oil and pure gasoline passes by the slender strait.
Because the begin of the struggle on Feb. 28, Iran’s essential leverage over the U.S. has been its management of the strait, together with the gathering of tolls from business ships passing by it as a situation for reopening the waterway.
“The weaker party gains just by virtue of entering into a negotiation process,” Mark Freeman, govt director of the Institute for Built-in Transitions, a peace and safety suppose tank primarily based in Spain, informed NPR.
Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has rattled international markets, elevating the nationwide common worth of gasoline above $4 a gallon.
The opposite large demand coming from Washington facilities on Iran’s nuclear program – and whether or not Tehran will settle for limits on nuclear enrichment.
In an interview with The John Fredericks Present Monday, an AM radio discuss present, President Trump stated Iran would return to negotiations, however insisted Tehran “will not have a nuclear weapon.”
“They’re going to negotiate,” Trump stated. “And if they don’t, they’re going to see problems like they’ve never seen before.”
A business vessel is seen off the coast of Dubai on April 20, 2026.
AFP by way of Getty Photos
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AFP by way of Getty Photos
Trump has persistently stated that one of many essential goals of the struggle with Iran is to make sure that it by no means has a nuclear weapon. In his first interview after the preventing began, he stated he believed Iran was “going to attack first” if the US didn’t act. Trump didn’t cite intelligence to assist that declare.
Vice President Vance stated the primary spherical of ceasefire talks held over every week in the past broke down as a result of Iran wouldn’t decide to forgoing a nuclear weapon.
“The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance stated.
For Iran, Lebanon and finish to blockade stay key calls for
For Tehran, the important thing calls for for extending the ceasefire embrace an finish to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and ensures that the preventing between Israel and Hezbollah wouldn’t resume.
Israel and Lebanon entered a 10-day ceasefire final week, pausing preventing between Israel’s navy and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. That ceasefire continues to be holding.
Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah who have been killed in southern Lebanon throughout their funeral within the Kafaat space in Beirut’s southern suburbs on April 20, 2026.
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Fadel Itani/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Iran had earlier refused to have interaction in additional negotiations with the US until Israel stopped its assaults on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel, nevertheless, has vowed to maintain its troops in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah stated the Lebanese individuals keep the “right to resist” Israeli forces within the nation.
Combating between Israel and Hezbollah broke out shortly after the beginning of the struggle with Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel in a present of solidarity with Tehran. Israeli forces responded with airstrikes and an invasion of southern Lebanon in an effort to create a “buffer zone” to distance Hezbollah fireplace from Israeli border communities.
Israel’s strikes have killed greater than 2,100 individuals and displaced over 1 million in Lebanon, in response to Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah’s assaults have killed no less than 12 Israeli troopers and two civilians, in response to Israeli authorities.
As for the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, Iran has made it clear it sees lifting the blockade as a situation for additional diplomacy.
After the primary spherical of ceasefire talks in Islamabad ended with out an settlement, the U.S. navy blockaded Iranian transport ports, in a bid to strain Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in addition to put financial strain on Iran to finish the struggle. The U.S. Navy says it has pressured 27 ships to show again for the reason that blockade started.
Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz for a second time, after briefly reopening the important thing transport route for lower than a day.
Iranian officers have additionally signaled they need monetary reduction, together with entry to $6 billion in frozen belongings, and don’t wish to negotiate whereas Washington retains up navy and financial strain.
Rebecca Rosman contributed to this report from London.
