Iran has denied reports of fresh talks with the US in Islamabad, blaming Washington’s “unreasonable and unrealistic demands” and naval blockade for stalling progress.
Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, has rejected reports of a second round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington in Islamabad, stating that current conditions do not support meaningful diplomatic engagement and accusing the United States of pursuing a pressure campaign.
“The reports circulating about a second round of negotiations in Islamabad are false,” IRNA said, adding that Washington’s approach has complicated the prospects of dialogue.
“US excessive demands, unreasonable and unrealistic expectations, frequent shifts in positions, continuous contradictions, and the so-called naval blockade, which violates the ceasefire understanding along with threatening rhetoric, have so far hindered progress in the negotiations,” the agency reported.
It further said that “under these conditions, the outlook for constructive talks remains bleak,” while describing news published by the US as part of a “propaganda campaign” and a “blame game” aimed at pressuring Iran.
This comes just days before the expiry of a ceasefire linked to the ongoing Middle East conflict.
State broadcaster IRIB cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks”, while the Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that “the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive”, noting that lifting the US blockade remains a precondition for negotiations.
Only one round of discussions has taken place so far, a 21-hour session held in Islamabad on April 11, which ended without agreement, though groundwork for further talks continued afterwards.
BLOCKADE AND MARITIME INCIDENT ESCALATE TENSIONS
The impasse comes amid heightened tensions over the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.
According to AFP, the issue intensified after a US destroyer fired on and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that attempted to evade the blockade.
US President Donald Trump said the vessel, Touska, was forced to stop after the destroyer acted “by blowing a hole in the engineroom,” adding that “Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel.” He said the ship was under US Treasury sanctions “because of prior history of illegal activity.”
Iran strongly criticised the incident.
The ISNA news agency quoted a spokesperson for Iran’s central command centre as saying the armed forces of the Islamic Republic “will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy and the US military.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the blockade as “a violation” of the ceasefire and “illegal collective punishment of the Iranian people.”
FRAMEWORK NEEDED BEFORE FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS
Reuters reported on April 18 that Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date has been set for the next round of talks, emphasising that both sides must first finalise a framework of understanding.
“We are now focusing on finalising the framework of understanding between two sides. We don’t want to enter into any negotiation or meeting which is doomed to fail and which can be a pretext for another round of escalation,” Khatibzadeh said on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum in Antalya.
He said there had been “significant progress” in earlier discussions but criticised what he described as a “maximalist approach” from the US side regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.
“I have to be very crystal clear that Iran would not accept being an exception from international law. Anything that we are going to be committed to will be within the international regulations and international law,” he said.
