Trump says US officials will be in Pakistan for negotiations

AFP

US President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan, "tomorrow night" for Iran negotiations.

"We’re offering a very fair and reasonable deal, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran," Trump wrote.

However, there was no immediate confirmation from Iran that it would attend any new talks. Iran's Tasnim news agency reported that there had been no decision taken to send a delegation while a US blockade of Iranian ports was in place.

"Iran stated that its absence from the second round of talks stems from what it called Washington's excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire," Iran's official IRNA news agency also wrote.

Earlier, a White House official said the US delegation would be headed by Vice President JD Vance, who led the war's first peace talks a week ago.

Trump's envoy Steve Kushner and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner would also attend. Earlier, Trump had told ABC News and MS Now that Vance would not go.

Pakistan has served as the main mediator in efforts to reach a deal that would end the war, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone on Sunday with Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Sharif's office said Pezeshkian had thanked Pakistan for its mediation efforts, in a readout of the call that made no mention of Iran rejecting the next round of talks.

Meanwhile, Trump said the US military had taken control of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship by blowing a hole in its engine room. "We have full custody of their ship, and are seeing what's on board!" he wrote on social media.

The United States has kept a blockade of Iranian ports in place, while Iran has lifted and then reimposed its own blockade of marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which, before the war began almost two months ago, handled roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

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