US, Iran warn they are ready for war as talks remain in limbo

With a fragile ceasefire nearing its deadline, Washington and Tehran traded fresh warnings of war, casting doubt over whether negotiations that US President Donald Trump said would resume in Pakistan will go ahead at all.

The White House said Vice President JD Vance stood ready to return to Islamabad, where Pakistani authorities were preparing for a second round of talks aimed at halting a conflict that has engulfed the Middle East and rattled global markets.

Tehran, however, stopped short of confirming its participation. Iran’s clerical leadership instead accused the United States of breaching the truce by maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and seizing an Iranian vessel.

“By imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit,” said Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the delegation at talks in Pakistan two weeks ago.

Oil prices slipped while most equities advanced on lingering hopes that the US-Iran war could yet be brought to an end

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they would target any vessel attempting to move through the Strait of Hormuz without permission.

Mr Trump has likewise accused Iran of violating the ceasefire by harassing shipping in the strategic waterway, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Iran had all but closed the route in retaliation after the war launched on 28 February by the United States and Israel.

In peacetime, the channel handles about 120 transits a day, according to Lloyd’s List, the shipping intelligence service.

The outlet said more than 20 Iranian so-called “shadow vessels” had passed the US blockade.

In one of several posts on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the blockade was “absolutely destroying” Iran and declared it would remain in place “until there is a ‘DEAL’,” as Washington presses Tehran for concessions over its disputed nuclear programme.

‘Agreed’ to attend talks

Mr Trump told PBS News that Iran was “supposed to be there” for the Pakistan talks.

“We agreed to be there,” he said, adding that if the ceasefire lapses, “then lots of bombs start going off”.

In separate remarks to Bloomberg News, he said it was “highly unlikely” he would prolong the two-week truce.

Veterans stage an occupation on Capitol Hill as they urge the Trump administration to bring the war to an end

By its original start time, the truce would in theory run out overnight tonight, though Mr Trump told Bloomberg it would instead end a day later, on Wednesday evening Washington time.

Oil prices moved lower and most stock markets gained as hopes for a settlement and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz persisted, even as Tehran said it had yet to decide whether it would join the peace talks.

New Israel-Lebanon talks

A separate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced on Friday and included Hezbollah, whose rocket attacks in support of Iran pulled Lebanon into the war.

Israel and Lebanon, which do not have diplomatic relations, are set to hold a second round of talks in Washington on Thursday, a State Department official told journalists.

Violence nevertheless flared intermittently, and Israel’s military warned civilians not to return to dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, saying Hezbollah activity there was breaching the truce.

The UN Security Council condemned the killing of a French peacekeeper in Lebanon, a death France attributed to Hezbollah.

Israel’s military warned civilians not to return to dozens of villages in southern Lebanon

The French peacekeeper was killed and three others were wounded when their unit came under ambush on Saturday while heading to a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) outpost cut off by fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told AFP that the group would seek to break the “Yellow Line” established by Israel in the south, while also saying it wanted “the ceasefire to continue”.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,387 people since the war began, according to the latest toll from a Lebanese government body.

Another central issue in the US-Iran talks has been Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Mr Trump said on Friday Iran had agreed to hand over.

Iran’s foreign ministry, however, has said the stockpile — believed to be buried after US bombing in last June’s 12-day war with Israel — was “not going to be transferred anywhere”.

Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said surrendering the uranium was “never raised as an option” during discussions with US negotiators.

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