US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he did not want to extend a ceasefire with Iran, adding Washington was in a strong negotiating position and would end up with what he called a great deal.
The ceasefire between the US and Iran is due to expire on Wednesday.
“I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time,” Trump told CNBC in an interview when asked about the possibility of extending the ceasefire.
According to a Reuters report, officials in Washington have expressed confidence that talks with Iran will go ahead in Pakistan, and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining.
With the prospect of last-ditch further peace talks still up in the air, Trump issued a threat to Iran, saying that the US would resume its attacks on Iran if a deal is not struck with Tehran soon.
“I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with. But we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go,” he said.
Trump’s flip-flops
Donald Trump has been offering mixed messages about the path ahead for the Iran war, declaring that he was in no rush to end the conflict while also saying that he still expects to dispatch his negotiating team, led by US Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad for talks. This has kept the prospect of a second round of talks uncertain as of Tuesday.
Iran’s chief negotiator has already said that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven’t yet been revealed.
“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” and the Islamic Republic has been preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield,” Iran’s chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote in a post on X early on Tuesday.
The ceasefire seemed likely to be extended if talks resume, before Trump’s latest announcement. Though it is very likely that the mercurial Republican will still end up changing his mind.
White House officials have said that Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran hasn’t yet confirmed who it might send. Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad … so far.”
The US has instituted a blockade of Iranian ports to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime. That has been a key sticking point in Iran, shadowing the peace talks.
Iran’s iron grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring, and Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading near $95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from February. 28, the day that Israel and the US attacked Iran to start the war.
Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping, and Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded through the waterway.
🚨 BREAKING: Watch the full clip here ➤
