Confusion over the US delegation to Iran talks has deepened after Trump contradicted the White House, while Tehran signalled it has yet to decide on sending negotiators to Islamabad, citing the ongoing US naval blockade as a key obstacle.<\/p>\n
US Vice President JD Vance will lead the American delegation for talks with Iran in Islamabad, the White House said, even as Tehran indicated it has not yet decided whether to send its own negotiators due to the ongoing US naval blockade.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Tasnim News Agency reported that no decision has been taken by Iran on dispatching a delegation as long as the blockade remains in place, with officials stressing that negotiations cannot proceed under such conditions.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Iranian team has stressed that as long as Trump\u2019s announcement of a naval blockade against Iran remains in effect, there will be no negotiations,\u201d Tasnim\u2019s correspondent reported.<\/p>\n
Early in the day, Trump announced he was sending negotiators to Islamabad for meetings with Tehran about ending the conflict that has raged in the Middle East, with a ceasefire soon set to expire.<\/p>\n
The president however said Vance \u2013 who led the last round of talks with Tehran in Islamabad, but came away with no deal \u2013 would not make the trip, citing security concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only because of security,\u201d Trump told ABC News. \u201cJD\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the White House quickly flipped the script, when asked about those comments.<\/p>\n
Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner will attend the talks, a White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
The trio were on hand last time around on April 11-12.<\/p>\n
Trump earlier accused Iran of a \u201cTotal Violation\u201d of the countries\u2019 two-week ceasefire with attacks Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 and threatened to destroy its power plants and bridges if no deal is reached.<\/p>\n
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he was offering Iran \u201ca reasonable deal\u201d and if Tehran refuses, \u201cthe United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey\u2019ll come down fast, they\u2019ll come down easy and, if they don\u2019t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s envoy to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC News that he believed the new round of talks would lead to an \u201cincredibly consequential\u201d outcome.<\/p>\n
The Strait of Hormuz remained closed on Sunday amidst the stand-off. Iran on Saturday declared it shut again to shipping \u2013 one day after saying it would reopen the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n
A UK maritime security agency said Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards had fired at one tanker on Saturday, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported the force had threatened to \u201cdestroy\u201d an empty cruise ship that was fleeing the Gulf.<\/p>\n
In the third incident, the UK agency said it received a report of a vessel \u201cbeing hit by an unknown projectile, which caused damage\u201d to shipping containers but no fire.<\/p>\n
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The US-Iran ceasefire is scheduled to end on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
With inputs from agencies<\/p>\n
First Published:
\nApril 19, 2026, 21:19 IST<\/p>\n
Home<\/a>World<\/a>Vance to lead US team for Iran talks in Islamabad; Tehran yet to decide amid blockadeEnd of Article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Confusion over the US delegation to Iran talks has deepened after Trump contradicted the White House, while Tehran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25851,38,34,16070,342,23329,2018,1096,26873,1137,16256,2017,101,69,17980,6758,26872,2429,15539],"class_list":{"0":"post-73119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-ceasefire-deadline","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-ceasefire","12":"tag-iran-conflict","13":"tag-islamabad-negotiations","14":"tag-jared-kushner","15":"tag-jd-vance","16":"tag-maritime-incidents-hormuz","17":"tag-middle-east-tensions","18":"tag-pakistan-mediation","19":"tag-steve-witkoff","20":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","21":"tag-tehran","22":"tag-tehran-talks","23":"tag-trump-iran-warning","24":"tag-us-delegation-iran","25":"tag-us-foreign-policy","26":"tag-us-iran-talks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116432264466023673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}