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US and Iran Resume Islamabad Talks as Trump Threatens Strikes Amid Strait Clash

US and Iran Resume Islamabad Talks as Trump Threatens Strikes Amid Strait Clash
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U.S. negotiators were set to arrive in Pakistan on Monday for a new round of ceasefire talks with Iran, as a fragile two-week truce neared its April 22 expiry and clashes continued around the Strait of Hormuz.fortune +1 President Donald Trump coupled the move with a threat to “knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran” if Tehran rejected what he called Washington’s “final and best offer.”fortune

The talks followed a marathon 21‑hour session in Islamabad on April 12 that ended without a deal but produced a framework both sides agreed to keep discussing.cbc +1 The war, triggered by joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has killed thousands across the region, including nearly 1,500 Iranian civilians by late March, and displaced millions in Iran and Lebanon alone.aa +1 Fighting has increasingly centered on energy routes, with Iran repeatedly closing the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports.fortune +1

Escalation at Sea and on the Ground: What Forced “Last-Ditch” Diplomacy?

The immediate trigger for the renewed push was a dangerous standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran announced yet another closure on April 18, citing what it called an illegal American “blockade” that had already forced at least 23 ships to turn back.mydailyrecord +1 U.S. Central Command said its forces were turning away Iranian-linked vessels under Trump’s orders, while at least one tanker reported coming under fire as it tried to transit the strait.mydailyrecord

That escalation came on top of weeks of strikes and counterstrikes: U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian infrastructure and military sites, Iranian missile and drone launches across Arab capitals, and devastating bombardment in Lebanon tied to Hezbollah’s role as an Iranian ally.onmanorama +1 UN and aid agency figures showed more than 2,000 people killed and 1.2 million displaced in Lebanon alone since early March, with an additional 3.2 million Iranians uprooted inside their own country.al24news +1 With roughly 20 percent of global oil historically moving through Hormuz, energy markets and key U.S. allies pressed Washington to seek at least a limited ceasefire that would reopen shipping lanes.mydailyrecord +1

Pakistan’s High-Risk Bid to Become the Region’s Go-To Mediator

Pakistan emerged as an unlikely but central broker after its powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, launched a diplomatic campaign in March, speaking repeatedly with Trump and Iranian leaders to sell Islamabad as neutral ground.nytimes +1 That effort produced the April 8 ceasefire and the first high-level, face-to-face U.S.-Iran talks in decades, hosted in Islamabad and framed by Pakistan as the start of an “Islamabad Process,” not a one-off summit.cbc +1

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar then embarked on shuttle diplomacy, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to build backing and security guarantees around any eventual deal.fortune +1 Riyadh’s support was considered especially important, both because of its lobbying of Trump earlier in the war and a 2025 mutual defense pact with Pakistan that could complicate Islamabad’s image of neutrality.responsiblestatecraft +1 Some regional actors, including Qatar, were wary of taking a central role, leaving Pakistan carrying much of the mediation burden even as analysts warned its overlapping alliances could prove a liability.pbs +1 A Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson summed up the first round of talks as “neither a breakthrough nor a breakdown,” a judgment that still appeared to apply as negotiators boarded planes for Monday’s session.cnbc

Looking Ahead

The new Islamabad talks were expected to focus on three core disputes: reopening Hormuz, limits on Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile—reported at roughly 900 pounds—and the phased release of up to $27 billion in frozen Iranian assets.cbc +1 Trump’s threats to Iran’s infrastructure, paired with White House assurances that Washington “felt good” about prospects for a deal, underscored the mix of coercion and diplomacy driving this last‑ditch effort.fortune With the ceasefire clock ticking and global shipping on edge, the next few days in Pakistan were likely to determine whether the conflict edged toward de-escalation—or slid back into a wider regional war.