April 19, 2026, 3:56 p.mApril 19, 2026, 3:56 p.m
According to US President Donald Trump, a delegation from Washington is traveling to the Pakistani capital Islamabad for negotiations in the conflict with Iran.
His representatives would be there on Monday evening, Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform – without specifying the time zone. There was initially no information from Tehran as to whether an Iranian delegation would also arrive. A ceasefire agreed upon by the USA and Iran is scheduled to expire on Wednesday.
Trump’s post on Truth Social.Image: Truth Social
Iran’s shooting at ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday was a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, Trump wrote. The USA is offering Iran a “very fair and reasonable deal” and he hopes that Iran will accept it. “If they don’t, the United States will shut down every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran,” Trump added, repeating a previous threat.
First talks without agreement
The first round of negotiations between the USA and Iran ended last weekend without an agreement. Pakistan, which was also the venue for the negotiations at the time, recently prepared for further talks between Washington and Tehran: registrations for media representatives began and additional security personnel were deployed to the city.
Trump had recently spoken of traveling to Islamabad to sign the agreement in the event of an agreement with Iran. Pakistani security circles also say that a new round of negotiations would be larger than the previous one.
It was unclear which representatives Trump would now send to the Pakistani capital. A week ago, Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation. The Iranian team was led by Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf.
Movement on central issues
After weeks of blockage over the Iran war, government officials in Tehran said on Friday that oil tankers and merchant ships could sail through the strait during the ongoing ceasefire. The following day, however, the military announced that it had taken back control of the trade route. The reason for this was the ongoing US naval blockade, which only applies to ships with a starting or destination port in Iran.
Iran effectively made the strait, which is important for the global oil and gas market, impassable by threatening and shelling tankers and cargo ships after the war began on February 28th. As a result, energy prices rose sharply.
Trump repeatedly urged Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and linked this to the ceasefire with the country that has been in effect since April 8th.
A ten-day ceasefire between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has also been in effect in Lebanon since Friday and will not expire until next weekend. Both sides had been involved in a serious confrontation since the Iran war began at the end of February. Iran, which said it had repeatedly raised the issue in negotiations with the USA, welcomed the move.
Another central point of contention
According to Trump, the central point of contention in the negotiations so far was the US demand that Tehran should never have a nuclear bomb. The Iranians have not agreed to this, but he thinks they will. “If they don’t agree, there’s no deal,” Trump said earlier this week. Tehran will not have nuclear weapons and will receive its highly enriched uranium, which is said to be located deep beneath Iran’s nuclear facilities.
On Friday, CBS News quoted Trump after a telephone interview as saying that the United States would work with Iran to recover uranium reserves. The uranium should then be brought to the USA, Trump said. However, Iranian Foreign Office spokesman Ismail Baghai immediately rejected Trump’s account. “The transfer of uranium to the USA was never an option and was not even up for debate,” he said, according to the Tasnim news agency. (sda/dpa)