US President Donald Trump. AFP
It remains unclear what Trump was referring to, as US-Iran talks are not expected until Tuesday, and Tehran has yet to confirm it will attend.
The New York Post quoted Trump in an interview earlier, saying that Vice President JD Vance is headed to Pakistan for negotiations, along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, while repeating threats to attack Iran's infrastructure if it did not make a deal.
“They’re heading over now,” Trump said. “They’ll be there tonight.”
However, according to the Associated Press, Vance's motorcade pulled up to the White House late Monday morning after Trump's comments were published, indicating the vice president had not left left Washington.
Trump threatened again that if no deal is reached, Iran would be “blown up” as a two-week ceasefire is set to end Tuesday at 8pm ET. He told Bloomberg News he was “highly unlikely” to renew the two-week ceasefire with Iran.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that Tehran has "no plans for the next round of negotiation, and no decision has been made in this regard,"
"The US is carrying out behaviours that do not in any way indicate seriousness in pursuing a diplomatic process," he added, calling an ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports and its recent seizure of a ship "clear violations of the ceasefire".
The office of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he spoke Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, urging sustained diplomacy to address pending issues.
The Pakistan Foreign Office statement did not mention whether they discussed Iran resuming talks with the US in Islamabad, but said officials agreed to remain closely engaged going forward.
Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new proposals from the US but suggested that a wide gap remained between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional allies and the Strait of Hormuz.
The US Navy's forcible seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship has thrown doubt on the course of the talks.
Iran threatened to retaliate.
The seizure capped a weekend of tension in the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran said Saturday it was once again closing the waterway and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council (IRGC) fired on ships attempting to pass, due to the continued US blockade of Iran’s coastline.
The US-Israeli war killed at least 3,375 people in Iran, according to a new toll released Monday in official Iranian media by Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization. He said that 2,875 were male and 496 were female. Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children under 18 years old.
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