WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a second round of US-Iranian peace talks could begin in Islamabad over the next two days.
Trump’s comments followed a wave of speculation about a new round of negotiations after 21 hours of talks on the weekend ended without any breakthrough.
“You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go there,” Trump told a New York Post reporter who had gone to Islamabad for the first round.
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 “favorite 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.
A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity later said no talks have been scheduled at the time. The first round ended without an agreement on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the White House says is a sticking point.
Islamabad is racing to arrange a meeting date that provides enough time for negotiations before the two-week ceasefire expires on Wednesday on April 22.
Pakistani officials said the initial negotiations were part of an ongoing diplomatic process rather than a one-off effort.
A source involved in the talks said a proposal had been shared with Washington and Tehran for their delegations to return to the Pakistani capital for a second round of talks. “No firm date has been set, with the delegations keeping Friday through Sunday open,” the source said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping floated his own peace plan on Tuesday. It calls for peaceful coexistence, respect for national sovereignty, and coordinating development and security.
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.
The US military claimed Tuesday that it has successfully begun to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports, as the standoff deepens.
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.
Iran threatened to strike targets across the region, a day after US President Donald Trump warned on social media that any Iranian warships nearing the blockade would be destroyed in a “quick and brutal” strike. — Agencies
Source: Saudi Gazette