US-Iran
peace talks could resume in next two days, Trump says
US
president says negotiations could restart in Islamabad under ‘fantastic’
Pakistani army chief Asim Munir
Julian
Borger, and Saeed Shah in Islamabad
Tue 14
Apr 2026 19.01 BST
Donald
Trump has said that US-Iranian peace talks could resume in Islamabad over the
next two days, and complimented the work of Pakistan’s army chief as mediator.
The US
president was speaking on Tuesday to a New York Post reporter who had gone to
Islamabad for the first round of ceasefire talks over the weekend. After an
interview discussing prospects for negotiations, the reporter said the
president had called her back “with an update”.
“You
should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next
two days, and we’re more inclined to go there,” Trump said. He added that
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was doing a “great job” in
arranging the talks.
“He’s
fantastic, and therefore it’s more likely that we go back there,” Trump said.
Munir is
a powerful figure in Pakistan and has good relations with Trump, who has called
him his “favourite field marshal”, and with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
A
Pakistani official said on Tuesday that he expected talks to restart soon, but
it may take a day or two longer than Trump suggested. “The game is on,” the
official said.
Islamabad
is racing to arrange a meeting date that provides enough time for negotiations
before the two-week ceasefire ends on Wednesday 22 April.
Trump’s
comments followed a wave of speculation about a new round of negotiations,
after 21 hours of talks on the weekend. Those ended with the US vice-president,
JD Vance, walking out on Sunday morning, claiming that Iran had failed to make
an “affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon”.
After the
talks ended, Trump declared a US naval blockade on ships using Iranian ports in
the Gulf in an effort to increase pressure on the country’s economy, and as a
counter to Iran’s near-total closure of the strait of Hormuz to ships using
other Gulf ports soon after the US-Israeli attack began on 28 February.
US
Central Command reported that over a 24-hour period “no ships made it past the
US blockade and six merchant vessels complied with direction from US forces to
turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman”.
Independent
reports confirmed that some tankers that had been approaching the strait on
Monday had turned around; one tanker, the Rich Starry, reversed course again
and passed through the waterway.
The
closure of the strait, a gateway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and
liquefied natural gas flows, had led to a spike in oil prices well above $100 a
barrel. Crude prices dipped to about $95 after reports of a possible second
round of talks on Tuesday.
Meanwhile,
Israel and Lebanon have held unprecedented negotiations in Washington about the
cross-border conflict, which erupted as a consequence of the US-Israeli attack
on Iran. Hezbollah sided with Iran and launched rockets at Israel, which
responded with intense bombardment of Beirut and other cities, and launched an
invasion of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah
has said it will not abide by any agreements made by Israeli and Lebanese
government negotiators in Washington.
Asked
about the possible restart of US-Iranian talks, Vance appeared to be open to
the possibility. “The big question from here on out is whether Iranians will
have enough flexibility,” he told Fox News on Monday evening. He said Iran had
shown some flexibility in Islamabad but “didn’t move far enough”.
On the
question of whether there would be additional talks, he replied it was a
question that would be “best put to the Iranians”.
US
reports on the Islamabad talks said the key sticking point had been the demand
from Vance’s delegation for a 20-year suspension of Iran’s enrichment of
uranium. Iran was reportedly offering a shorter moratorium, of less than 10
years.
An
Iranian official accused the US delegation of making maximalist demands at the
Islamabad talks. “Iran did not surrender at the battlefield, neither will it
surrender behind the table,” the official said.
It is
unclear where negotiations stood when the Islamabad meeting broke up over the
other major proliferation concern: Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium
(HEU). It is close to weapons-grade purity and is believed to be buried in deep
shafts under mountains in central Iran.
At
negotiations in Geneva before the war, Iran offered to dilute the HEU, which
would extend the period it would take to produce a nuclear warhead, but the US
has called for its complete removal.
A
Pakistani official said Iran was insisting that Vance lead the Iranian
delegation to any future talks, as Tehran does not trust Trump’s special envoy,
Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as reliable
interlocutors.
Senior
officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey were in Islamabad on Tuesday for
talks with Pakistani officials on the next moves in mediating the conflict.
Pakistan’s
prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, is due to depart on Wednesday on a trip to
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar to build support for the peace process, and to
seek help with proposals to reopen the strait of Hormuz and discuss Iran’s
demand for war reparations. Sharif’s regional tour might have to be cut short,
however, if there is a quick return to the negotiating table.
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