US President Donald Trump said he\u2019ll send representatives to Pakistan for talks to end the Iran war on Monday evening, while again threatening to strike civilian infrastructure if Tehran doesn\u2019t agree to a deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don\u2019t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,\u201d he said in a social media post early Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US leader told Fox News that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Islamabad for talks on Tuesday that could last until Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New York Post reported that Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will also participate in the talks to end a war that\u2019s killed thousands. The announcement came after Iran reversed its decision to reopen shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in response to a US blockade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The standoff over Hormuz \u2014 through which about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil flowed before the US-Israeli war on Iran \u2014 threatens to deepen the global energy crisis and undermine expectations of an imminent peace deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hormuz is one of several unresolved issues in peace talks, including Iran\u2019s nuclear program and Israel\u2019s ongoing invasion of Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShips are awaiting instructions from Iran\u2019s armed forces to determine whether they can pass through the route,\u201d Iran\u2019s semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, late Saturday, Iran\u2019s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation in talks with the US earlier this month in Pakistan, said that while gaps \u201cremain significant,\u201d the negotiations are making progress. He added that Iran\u2019s armed forces are prepared to act even as discussions take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,\u201d he said in a televised address, referring to the US naval blockade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the US military is preparing to board Iran-linked oil tankers and seize commercial ships in international waters in the coming days to pressure Iran into reopening Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing anonymous American officials. The White House didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment about the Journal\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 Navy issued a statement Saturday afternoon warning vessels not to leave their anchorages in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and that approaching the strait \u201cwill be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the violating vessel will be targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey wanted to close up the strait again like they\u2019ve been doing for years, and they can\u2019t blackmail us,\u201d Trump told reporters Saturday about Iran, although the strait was fully open until the US and Israel began their bombing campaign seven weeks ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have some information by the end of the day, you know. We\u2019re talking to them. We\u2019re taking a tough stand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The developments of the last 72 hours illustrate the unpredictable nature of the conflict as well as the erratic \u2014 and sometimes contradictory \u2014 nature of Trump\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president on Friday said a deal with Iran was all but agreed to, including concessions Tehran has never publicly made, signalling he was ready to sign and move on to domestic issues. He even told ABC News that he trusted the Iranians, a group whose civilisation he just recently threatened to wipe out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But crucially, Trump left a blockade of the strait in place until an agreement was finalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran called the blockade a ceasefire violation and moved to close the waterway again. That prompted Trump\u2019s latest diatribe, in which he renewed threats on Iran\u2019s civilian infrastructure if they didn\u2019t cut a deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were also signs that the ceasefire in Lebanon \u2014 linked to Iran\u2019s decision to allow Hormuz traffic \u2014 may be fraying. The Israel Defence Forces said it struck \u201csaboteurs\u201d approaching its troops in violation of the truce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Momentum for a lasting peace had been building late last week, but cracks began to emerge Saturday with Iran\u2019s criticism of the continued US blockade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK Navy soon after said a tanker was approached by IRGC gunboats before being fired at, adding that the vessel and its crew were safe. A container ship was hit by an unknown projectile in a separate incident off the coast of Oman, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said the country\u2019s \u201cnavy stands ready to make enemies taste the bitterness of new defeats\u201d in a statement marking National Army Day. It wasn\u2019t clear if his message was in direct response to developments surrounding Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran is in control of the strait and will secure its rights \u201ceither at the negotiating table or in the field,\u201d Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile a deal appears to be in sight that may bring an end to the current round of US-Iran hostilities and relief to energy markets, it\u2019s unlikely to result in a full or lasting peace,\u201d Bloomberg Economics analysts, including Jennifer Welch, wrote in a report. \u201cWe assess that any deal will be limited and fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oil, fuel and natural gas prices plunged on hopes that the latest developments would mean an end to the war and more energy supplies could transit safely through Hormuz. Brent crude dropped 9% on Friday to around $90 a barrel. Diesel prices in the US and Europe also fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a notable shift, real-world oil prices also eased significantly alongside headline futures prices. On Friday, dated Brent, the world\u2019s most important physical price, fell below $100 a barrel for the first time since March 11. Stocks extended their rally on speculation that the war would soon end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One proposal under discussion is for the US to release $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in return for Tehran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium, Axios reported, citing two US officials and two other unidentified sources briefed on the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump pushed back on that idea in a phone interview with Bloomberg on Friday, repeatedly saying \u201cno\u201d when asked if he would release the $20 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reported by Salma El Wardany, Arsalan Shahla and Alex Longley for Bloomberg<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US President Donald Trump has issued a final warning if Tehran doesn\u2019t agree to a deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":857644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1850,24158],"class_list":["post-857643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-bloomberg","tag-united-states-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857645,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857643\/revisions\/857645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}