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WASHINGTON – The United States and Iran are considering extending their ceasefire that ends on April 21 by another two weeks to allow more time to negotiate a peace agreement, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mediators between the warring sides are trying to set up technical talks to resolve the most contentious issues, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing sensitive matters. Those include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear enrichment, they said.
If successful, those talks could pave the way toward the next round of negotiations between senior officials from the US and Iran, said the person.
There is still no guarantee the ceasefire will be extended, and the US has not yet agreed to that, an American official familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the discussions are private.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Neither Iran nor the US desires a return to fighting, said another person familiar with the discussions.
US President Donald Trump played down the prospect of renewed fighting on April 14, telling Fox Business that the near seven-week war is “close to over”.
The conflict, which the US and Israel began on Feb 28 with a bombardment of Iran, has seen Iran suffer huge damage to its military and its infrastructure.
Iran’s counterstrikes wreaked havoc across the Middle East and – with Tehran all but closing the vital Strait of Hormuz – sent energy prices soaring, hurting Mr Trump politically.
Still, the main issues between the US and Iran will be far from easy to resolve.
Iran has long insisted that it has a right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, while Mr Trump has said it should be barred to prevent it ever building a nuclear weapon.
The US and Israel have also said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium must be handed over or destroyed.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters on April 15 that Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear energy “cannot be revoked”, though the level and type of uranium enrichment is “negotiable”.
It is unclear whether Israel favours an extension of the truce with Iran, though it has previously said it will follow Washington’s lead.
The Israeli security Cabinet was meeting late on April 15 to discuss a possible ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting a parallel war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel’s Kan broadcasting network reported.
The Hormuz strait, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies normally flow, remains effectively shut.
The US began a blockade of ships leaving or entering Iranian ports on April 13, which Iran has criticised and signalled may amount to a breach of the ceasefire, which was agreed to on April 7. That truce did not include the conflict in Lebanon.
US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf met in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad on April 11 as part of efforts to end the conflict. Those ended without a deal. BLOOMBERG
