US president Donald Trump has said a second round of peace talks to end the war in Iran could happen “over the next two days”.
He told the New York Post that negotiations could be held again in Islamabad as diplomats worked through back channels to arrange them.
It comes after the US military said its blockade of Iranian ports was in full effect and Tehran has threatened to retaliate by striking targets across the region.
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UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said it is “highly probable” that talks will restart, citing a meeting he had with Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar.
The office of Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said he would travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as his country pushes to mediate new talks and to Turkey for the Anatalya Peace Forum, which starts on Friday.
Oil prices fell on hopes for an end to fighting, and in the US stocks surged close to records set in January.
The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and air strikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region.
Last weekend in Pakistan, an initial round of talks aimed at permanently ending the US-Iran conflict failed to produce an agreement. The White House said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a central sticking point.
“I think they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said in an excerpt from an interview with Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria on Wednesday. He added: “I view it as very close to over.”
A US official said Tuesday that fresh talks with Iran were still under discussion and that nothing has been scheduled.
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves is also set to meet her US counterpart after he said “a small bit of economic pain” caused by the Iran war was worth it to prevent Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.
The comments by US treasury secretary Scott Bessent put him at odds with the Chancellor, who has expressed her anger and frustration at the “folly” of America’s actions in the Middle East and its financial fallout on families.
Reeves had previously told The Mirror: "I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve.”
The pair were due to hold face-to-face talks in Washington DC on Wednesday during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund, which will be dominated by the ongoing crisis in the Gulf, which has inflicted a global economic shock and sent energy prices soaring.
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A ceasefire has been put in place, however Iran has said the US and Israel is in breach of the agreement by continuing to strike Lebanon.
The war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
US Central Command said on Tuesday that no ships made it past the blockade in the first 24 hours, while six merchant vessels complied with a direction from US forces to turn around and re-enter Iranian waters.
The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began on February 28. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash that has been vital to keeping Iran running.
Tankers approaching the strait on Monday turned around shortly after the blockade took effect, though one reversed course again and transited the waterway.
Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels avoiding the waterway.
Tehran’s effective closure of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.
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