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 Photographs
The U.S. and Iran escalated their disagreement 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 looking for to show the negotiation into “a desk of give up or to justify renewed warmongering.”
Ghalibaf additionally steered that Iran is holding recent leverage within the standoff. “Prior to now two weeks, now we have 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 navy drive 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 means of along with his menace of resuming navy hostilities in opposition to Iran’s energy crops and bridges.
The escalation in tensions got here as a U.S. delegation was making ready to journey again to Pakistan for a possible second spherical of peace talks. The American delegation “plans to journey to Islamabad quickly,” a supply conversant in the matter informed CNBC on Monday morning.
Iran, for its half, has repeatedly denied that it’s going to take part within the assembly. A delegation from Tehran plans to journey to Islamabad on Tuesday for talks, based on 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 non permanent truce has come below mounting pressure all through its quick 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,” probably 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 take care of Tehran is reached.
When requested if he would anticipate the combating to renew instantly in the event that they fail to succeed in an settlement, Trump stated, “If there is not any deal, I will surely anticipate.”
Upcoming peace talks
A diplomatic roadmap, fairly than a everlasting settlement, is essentially the most sensible end result of the Islamabad talks, stated Cornelia Meyer, chief govt of Meyer Assets. Referring to the Iran nuclear deal, which took greater than two years of negotiation earlier than reaching a preliminary framework in 2015, Meyer stated that “anticipating an actual peace settlement goes too far.”
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, based on a number of information retailers.
American negotiators could also be at a drawback on the negotiating desk with Iran’s skilled diplomatic delegation — a staff 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. aspect lacks comparable experience in worldwide relations.
Until the U.S. brings “a staff of competent consultants whom they belief … they’re out of their league,” stated Eyre, including that the “absolute best, sensible end 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 Fact Social submit late Monday stateside, Trump repeated that the U.S. “Operation Midnight Hammer” — the June 2025 strikes focusing on three services vital to Tehran’s nuclear program — succeeded in making a “whole obliteration of the Nuclear Mud websites” and “digging it out might be an extended and tough course of.”
The U.S. and Iran have additionally been at an intense deadlock over marine visitors by means of the Strait of Hormuz, with Trump vowing to maintain in place a blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran reasserting navy management of the essential waterway. The chokepoint in regular occasions is the throughway for 20% of the world’s oil and gasoline 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 trying passage, the most recent escalation within the very important artery that put either side on a collision course because the clock runs down on Islamabad.
“Any escalation, significantly navy motion round Hormuz, may 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 power shipments by means of the Strait of Hormuz may resume.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
