US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that talks between Washington and Tehran could resume over the next two days and that “we’re more inclined to go” to Pakistan, reported The New York Post.
“You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go there,” Trump said.
“It’s more likely, you know why? Because the Field Marshal is doing a great job. He’s fantastic, and therefore it’s more likely that we go back there,“ he told The NY Post. “Why should we go to some country that has nothing to do with it?”
However, the paper confirmed that Trump would join the US delegation for a potential second round of talks. Moreover, he did not mention who would be part of the negotiating team.
The NY Post also noted Trump’s displeasure with reports that the US asked Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program for at least 20 years during the Islamabad Talks.
“I’ve been saying they can’t have nuclear weapons”, he was quoted as saying, “so I don’t like the 20 years.”
When asked by the paper about whether the moratorium could encourage Iran to make a deal, Trump replied, “I don’t want them (Iran) to feel like they have a win.”
Trump’s statement follows reports that negotiating teams from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week, after engaging in dialogue in Pakistan’s capital over the weekend.
Pakistan hosted direct Iran-US talks in Islamabad on Saturday and Sunday, marking the highest engagement between the two sides since 1979. Both delegations departed the capital on Sunday after the talks ended without an agreement, but also without a breakdown.
Earlier, two Pakistani sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters that Islamabad was communicating with the two sides about the timing of the next round and the meeting would likely take place on the weekend.
“We have reached out to Iran and we got a positive response that they will be open to a second round of talks,” a senior Pakistani government official was quoted as saying by Reuters.
On Monday, officials familiar with the back-channel exchanges told Dawn that intermediaries were working to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table, with Pakistan at the centre of the efforts, backed by Turks and Egyptians.
The immediate priority, they said, was to extend the ceasefire.
On Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a meeting of the federal cabinet that “full efforts” were ongoing to resolve the conflict.
Noting that the truce was still holding, he said, “As I am talking to you, matters that are not resolved, full efforts are underway to resolve them.”
Today, he called on President Asif Ali Zardari, briefed him on his upcoming visits to Saudi Arabia and Turkiye “for further engagement to promote peace efforts” and took him into confidence on “all aspects of the dialogue” between Iran and the United States, a statement issued by the President’s Secretariat said.
The ceasefire between the US and Iran, brokered on April 8 after weeks of conflict, is set to expire on April 22. While technically intact, it is increasingly precarious.
The US has moved toward enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports, prompting a warning from Tehran that such a move would be a violation of the ceasefire.
Push for talks
Pakistan, after the end of the talks in Islamabad, moved swiftly to consolidate international support.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has recently held a series of calls with his counterparts, including Britain’s Yvette Cooper, China’s Wang Yi, Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty.
Across these engagements, Pakistan conveyed a consistent message that all parties to the conflict must uphold the ceasefire and that dialogue remains the only viable path forward. International partners responded positively.
Diplomatic sources said these engagements helped build a broad, if informal, coalition aimed at sustaining the process and buying time before the April 22 deadline.
The objective was to secure either an extension of the ceasefire or a return to technical-level engagement that could prepare the ground for a second political round.
Since the Islamabad talks, the intermediaries have helped exchange messages between the US and Iran on the outstanding issues, hoping to convince both sides to extend the truce by at least 45 days.
Both sides agreed to continue negotiations, but differences on the agenda, objectives, format and venue for the next round persisted. A diplomatic source said Iran preferred Islamabad, citing proximity, familiarity and its comfort with Pakistan’s role as mediator.
However, it was earlier reported that the US side was understood to be considering alternative options, reflecting a different assessment of the negotiating environment, logistical preferences and security considerations.
