The entrance web page of the Javan newspaper (L) and the entrance web page of the Jam Jam newspaper, which encompasses a cartoon of US President Donald Trump drowning within the Strait of Hormuz with the headline “Marine Bluff,” are on sale at a newsstand in Tehran on April 13, 2026.
Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Photos
The U.S. and Iran escalated their confrontation as a shaky ceasefire nears expiry, with either side elevating the stakes forward of a second try at reaching a peace deal.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, appeared to up the ante in a social media submit on Tuesday, criticising U.S. President Donald Trump for “imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire,” and for searching for to show the negotiation into “a desk of give up or to justify renewed warmongering.”
Ghalibaf additionally prompt that Iran is holding recent leverage within the standoff. “Up to now two weeks, we’ve ready to disclose new playing cards on the battlefield,” Ghalibaf stated, with out elaborating. “We don’t settle for negotiations below the shadow of threats,” he added.
The sharpened rhetoric got here after Trump renewed his menace of bombarding Iran with overwhelming army power if no deal is reached, saying that “a lot of bombs [will] begin going off.”
The standing of additional peace talks and different key particulars of the present relationship between the warring powers have grown more and more opaque, with Trump vacillating between resuming saber-rattling rhetoric and indicating Washington’s readiness for extra negotiations with Iran.
“That is the final probability to attain an settlement earlier than the ceasefire expires,” Marc Sievers, former U.S. ambassador to Oman, stated on CNBC’s “Entry Center East” on Monday, warning that the stakes are excessive if Trump follows by way of together with his menace of resuming army hostilities in opposition to Iran’s energy crops and bridges.
Iran, for its half, has repeatedly denied that it’ll take part within the assembly. A delegation from Tehran plans to journey to Islamabad on Tuesday for talks, in accordance with The New York Occasions, citing two Iranian officers.
A primary spherical of talks in Islamabad, led by Vice President JD Vance and U.S. particular envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, ended on April 12 with no decision to thorny points like Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on the night of April 7. The short-term truce has come below mounting pressure all through its brief length, with either side accusing the opposite of violating its phrases.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Trump stated the truce expires on “Wednesday night Washington time,” doubtlessly shopping for further hours for negotiations. Trump added he’s unlikely to increase the Iran ceasefire past Wednesday and will not open the Strait of Hormuz till a cope with Tehran is reached.
When requested if he would count on the combating to renew instantly in the event that they fail to succeed in an settlement, Trump stated, “If there isn’t any deal, I will surely count on.”
Upcoming peace talks
Vance, together with officers from the Nationwide Safety Council, the State Division, and the Pentagon, is reportedly a part of the U.S. delegation heading to Pakistan for talks on Tuesday, in accordance with a number of information shops.
American negotiators could also be at a drawback on the negotiating desk with Iran’s skilled diplomatic delegation — a workforce of execs who “know their portfolios,” stated Alan Eyre, a former senior US diplomat who helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, whereas the U.S. facet lacks comparable experience in worldwide relations.
Except the U.S. brings “a workforce of competent consultants whom they belief … they’re out of their league,” stated Eyre, including that the “absolute best, sensible final result” from the potential talks can be an settlement on normal ideas and an extension of the ceasefire.
The destiny of Iran’s nuclear materials will stay a key sticking level in negotiations. Trump stated on Friday that Iran had agreed to switch its stockpile of extremely enriched uranium to the U.S., a declare that Iran denied inside hours.
In a Reality Social submit late Monday stateside, Trump repeated that the U.S. “Operation Midnight Hammer” — the June 2025 strikes concentrating on three services important to Tehran’s nuclear program — succeeded in making a “whole obliteration of the Nuclear Mud websites” and “digging it out will likely be an extended and tough course of.”
The U.S. and Iran have additionally been at an intense deadlock over marine visitors by way of the Strait of Hormuz, with Trump vowing to maintain in place a blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran reasserting army management of the essential waterway. The chokepoint in regular occasions is the throughway for 20% of the world’s oil and fuel transits.
Additional escalating tensions within the canal, the Iranian international ministry accused the U.S. of attacking an Iranian business vessel and demanded the discharge of its crew.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Navy fired on and seized an Iran-flagged cargo ship that had tried to bypass the blockade — the primary vital encounter for the reason that U.S. blockade started — whereas Tehran fired on two ships making an attempt passage, the newest escalation within the important artery that put either side on a collision course because the clock runs down on Islamabad.
“Any escalation, significantly army motion round Hormuz, might set off a renewed spike in oil costs and a broad risk-off transfer,” stated Lloyd Chan, senior forex analyst at MUFG World Markets Analysis, noting that the murky outlook on peace talks left markets guessing on when vitality shipments by way of the Strait of Hormuz might resume.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
