Tensions between the US and Iran continued to escalate on Monday after Tehran said it was not planning to send officials to Pakistan for talks with Washington, following the seizure of an Iranian ship.
It comes after President Donald Trump ordered US negotiators to travel to Islamabad on Monday, just days before the ceasefire between the two is due to expire.
State broadcaster IRIB on Sunday cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks”.
There has been just one 21-hour negotiating session held in Islamabad between the two sides, which ended inconclusively on 11 April, although groundwork for fresh talks continued afterwards.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it,” Trump said in a post on Sunday, while also renewing his threats against Iran’s infrastructure if a deal is not made.
The ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports has been a significant sticking point, an issue further complicated by a US destroyer on Sunday firing on and seizing an Iranian ship that tried to evade it.
Trump said a massive Iranian-flagged cargo ship “tried to get past our Naval Blockade” and that “it did not go well for them”.
A US destroyer warned the Iran-flagged ship, Touska, to stop and then forced it to do so by “blowing a hole in the engine room”, Trump said, adding: “Right now, US Marines have custody of the vessel.”
Iran’s central command centre has condemned the move and said it will “retaliate against this armed piracy”.
