President Trump said on Tuesday that he was extending a cease-fire with Iran that had been about to expire, even as Vice President JD Vance\u2019s trip to Pakistan for a second round of negotiations with Iran was put on hold after Tehran failed to respond to American positions.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump said on social media that, at the request of Pakistan\u2019s leadership, the cease-fire would stay in effect until Iran\u2019s \u201cproposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.\u201d The president, however, said that the U.S. military would continue to blockade Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
That stance appeared to be a major sticking point for Iran. The country\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on social media earlier on Tuesday that the blockade was \u201can act of war and thus a violation of the cease-fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the two-week truce, which had been set to end on Wednesday in Iran, was extended, it was unclear what steps Iran or the United States would take next.<\/p>\n
Mr. Vance, who had been expected to travel to Pakistan on Tuesday morning, was staying in Washington to attend additional policy meetings, a White House official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss potential scheduling.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, said Iran had not decided whether to send its negotiators to Pakistan. Mr. Baghaei blamed \u201ccontradictory messages, inconsistent behavior and unacceptable actions by the American side,\u201d according to Iran\u2019s state broadcaster, IRIB.<\/p>\n
In private, two senior Iranian officials had said Monday that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf<\/a>, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander and speaker of the Iranian Parliament, would attend negotiations in Pakistan if Mr. Vance were there.<\/p>\n As recently as Tuesday morning, Mr. Vance had still been planning to travel to Pakistan. But because Iran had given no response to the Trump administration\u2019s negotiating positions, the U.S. official said, the diplomatic process was in effect paused. <\/p>\n The talks could be back on at a moment\u2019s notice if Iran\u2019s negotiators respond in a way that Mr. Trump deems acceptable. U.S. officials were also looking for a clear sign that Iran\u2019s negotiators had been fully empowered to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n The delay was another hurdle in the Trump administration\u2019s push to secure an agreement that would curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program, and it came as U.S. forces remain poised to launch another wave of strikes on Iran, having maintained their substantial presence in the Middle East.<\/p>\n Even if the sides return to the negotiating table, many sticking points remain on Iran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a> and the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic conduit for oil and gas off Iran\u2019s southern coast. The threat of Iranian attacks has throttled ship traffic<\/a> through the strait, prompting an American blockade of Iranian ports that the U.S. Navy says<\/a> has forced 28 ships to turn around.<\/p>\n The United States recently transmitted a written proposal to the Iranians intended to establish base line points of agreement that could frame more detailed negotiations. The document covered a broad range of issues, but the core sticking points were the same ones that have bedeviled Western negotiators for more than a decade: the scope of Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment program and the fate of its stockpile of enriched uranium.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what exactly the United States has proposed or what the president would be willing to accept. The American position could range from demanding that Iran abandon enrichment entirely to allowing a limited civilian program under strict oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency, paired with the closure of Iran\u2019s underground nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n One of the ideas discussed during negotiations last year was a multinational consortium working with Iran to enrich uranium for civilian uses; potential locations included an island in the Persian Gulf. Regarding the stockpile, negotiators are weighing options including whether Iran should surrender its enriched uranium directly to the United States or transfer it to a third country.<\/p>\n Also on the table is what the United States might offer in return. Iran has hundreds of billions of dollars in assets frozen under American sanctions as part of Mr. Trump\u2019s maximum-pressure campaign, and administration officials are debating whether releasing some of those funds could be part of a final deal. Officials have also discussed whether the United States and Persian Gulf partners such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates might offer broader economic integration to Iran.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has been adamant in private conversations that his deal must be better than the one struck by President Barack Obama in 2015. Knowing that, Iran hawks close to the president have repeatedly invoked Mr. Obama\u2019s deal as a tactic to keep him from agreeing to what they view as dangerous concessions.<\/p>\n Any American position on enrichment will have to contend with Iran\u2019s longstanding argument, rooted in its accession to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, that the pact guarantees signatories the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n The pause in talks capped a turbulent few days of public messaging from Mr. Trump, whose statements have at times appeared at odds with the state of the negotiations.<\/p>\n In a telephone interview with CBS News on Friday, Mr. Trump declared that Iran had \u201cagreed to everything\u201d and described a joint operation to remove Iranian nuclear material. \u201cOur people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we\u2019ll take it to the United States,\u201d he said. Iranian officials quickly disputed that characterization.<\/p>\n Then on Sunday, Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iran had violated the cease-fire by firing on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, including a French ship and a British freighter. That same day, U.S. military forces seized an Iranian-flagged ship, the Touska, that Mr. Trump said had tried to evade the blockade<\/a> on the country\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the U.S. military stopped and boarded a tanker in the Indian Ocean that was carrying oil from Iran, the Pentagon said. It was the latest effort by the Trump administration to squeeze Iran\u2019s oil-reliant economy since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n