US Vice President J.D. Vance is reportedly headed to Islamabad for potential talks as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms<\/p>\n
Iranian officials have struck a defiant tone ahead of a possible new round of talks with Washington, warning that Tehran has prepared to \u201creveal new cards on the battlefield\u201d while rejecting any negotiations conducted \u201cunder the shadow of threats.\u201d
\nIranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused US President Donald Trump of trying to turn negotiations into \u201ca table of surrender\u201d and said Iran had spent the past two weeks preparing new military options.
\n\u201cTrump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table \u2013 in his own imagination \u2013 into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield,\u201d Ghalibaf wrote on X.<\/p>\n
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Iran condemns US \u2018maritime piracy\u2019 after ship seizure<\/p>\n
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said the \u201cnon-constructive and contradictory\u201d conduct of US officials sent the message that Washington was seeking Iran\u2019s surrender, adding that Iranians \u201cwill not bow to coercion.\u201d
\nThe temporary ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, is set to expire on Wednesday, after the first round of talks in Islamabad last weekend failed to produce a breakthrough and Trump imposed a US military blockade of Iranian ports.
\nTrump warned on Sunday that if Iran doesn\u2019t accept Washington\u2019s \u201cfair and reasonable deal,\u201d the US is going to \u201cknock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Trump\u2019s threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure \u2018perfectly acceptable\u2019 \u2013 UN envoy<\/p>\n
The US president initially announced the second round of talks for Monday, and the White House reportedly spent the day waiting for confirmation that Tehran would send its negotiating team. Axios reported later in the day that US Vice President J.D. Vance, alongside Trump\u2019s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, was expected to leave for Islamabad by Tuesday morning.
\nAccording to Axios, Iranian negotiators had been stalling amid reported pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take a harder line and refuse talks unless the US first ends its blockade. The report claimed that Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators had urged Tehran to attend, and that Iran\u2019s team allegedly received a green light from the supreme leader on Monday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Vice President J.D. Vance is reportedly headed to Islamabad for potential talks as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms Iranian officials have struck a defiant tone ahead of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t