US – Iran ‘will continue negotiations but no date has been set’

Intermediaries are pushing for the US and Iran to extend the two-week ceasefire and arrange a second round of negotiations between the two countries to find a long-term solution to the conflict, but this process is progressing slowly, the US newspaper reported. Wall Street Journal on April 15, citing well-informed sources.

Accordingly, Washington and Tehran have agreed in principle that the two sides will meet again, but have not yet set a time and place, after the first round of peace negotiations in Islamabad last weekend ended without reaching any agreement.

Reuters and AP Earlier this week, citing US officials and diplomats, the delegation of this country and Iran could “advance to the second round of negotiations” on April 16 in Pakistan. However, this plan is unlikely to take place, because Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye on April 15-18.

During this trip, Mr. Sharif will discuss with leaders of the above countries about bilateral cooperation as well as “regional peace and security”.

On April 7, the United States and Iran reached a two-week ceasefire agreement to resume diplomatic efforts. On April 11, the two countries negotiated for about 9 hours in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, with the participation of the host country, but in the end could not reach consensus on key issues, including control of the Strait of Hormuz and whether Iran could continue to enrich uranium or not.

A US official on April 15 told AFP that Washington has not officially agreed to extend the current ceasefire with Tehran, which will end on April 22. “The US and Iran continue to communicate to reach an agreement,” this person said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed on the same day that the two sides continued to exchange messages through Pakistan.

Iranian state media reported that a Pakistani delegation “is on its way to the country to convey a message from the US side and plan a second round of negotiations”. The Pakistani army later announced that army chief Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had arrived in Tehran.

Meanwhile, p Axios quoted two US officials as saying that this country and Iran had made progress in exchanges on April 14 and were moving closer to a peace agreement framework.

Meanwhile, tensions on the ground remain high. After last week’s round of negotiations failed to progress, President Trump ordered a blockade of Iranian seaports from April 13 to pressure Iran to accept the terms of the agreement to end the conflict.

The White House boss today continued to warn that if the conflict continues, the US could “destroy all of Iran’s bridges and power plants within an hour”.

“We don’t want to do that… let’s wait and see what happens next,” Mr. Trump told Fox Business.

The Iranian military on the same day announced that the US move “caused insecurity for Iran’s commercial ships and oil tankers”, considered “a violation of the ceasefire”. Iran warned that if the actions continued, they would block trade activities through the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Gulf of Oman in response.