Tehran has indicated it has no plans to send negotiators to Pakistan for a fresh round of talks with Washington, after the United States seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, throwing an already fragile diplomatic track into deeper uncertainty.
The seizure of the vessel, the Touska, was carried out on Sunday by the US Navy in the Gulf of Oman. A video released by US Central Command (CENTCOM) showed Marines descending from a helicopter by rope to board the ship after the guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance disabled the Touska’s propulsion. President Donald Trump said the US military had “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room” after the ship failed to heed repeated warnings, adding that Marines then moved in to inspect its cargo.
According to state media reports, the ship had been travelling from China to Iran and had left a Malaysian port roughly eight days earlier, bound for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s response has been sharply worded. “We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military,” an Iranian military spokesperson said, according to state media. Tehran has said its participation in any further talks is contingent on Washington lifting its naval blockade, which has been in place since April 13 in an effort to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
Despite the standoff, Trump has insisted a US delegation is en route to Islamabad. The team, led by Vice President JD Vance and including special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is expected to arrive in the Pakistani capital this week. Trump has brushed aside Iran’s public reluctance, telling The New York Post, “We’re supposed to have the talks. So I would assume at this point nobody’s playing games.”
Iranian officials have sent mixed signals. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran had no plans yet regarding a second round of talks, accusing the US of lacking “seriousness in pursuing a diplomatic process”. However, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee, told Al Jazeera that Iran would likely send a team to negotiate “today or tomorrow.”
Preparations in Islamabad are nonetheless well under way. Several routes into the city have been blocked and the high-security Red Zone — home to government buildings and embassies — has been completely sealed, according to city traffic police. Even hiking trails in the Margalla Hills on the city’s edge were closed on Monday.
The first round of talks, held just over a week ago in Islamabad with Vance leading the US delegation, concluded without an agreement. If the two sides do sit down again, the hurdles are substantial. Key sticking points include the fate of Iran’s uranium stockpiles, curbs on its uranium enrichment, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies typically flow.
Trump has coupled the diplomatic push with a stark threat. “We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” he wrote on social media.
The US-Iran ceasefire is set to expire on Wednesday evening, and Trump has said an extension is “highly unlikely.” Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle, with no tankers passing through the waterway on Sunday, according to ship-tracking data — one of the quietest days in the channel since the conflict began.
The crisis has reverberated well beyond the Gulf. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said the Strait of Hormuz “should remain open to normal navigation,” in some of Beijing’s most pointed remarks yet on the waterway. Xi also reiterated China’s call for an immediate ceasefire. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a separate call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, blamed “the military aggression of the United States and the Zionist regime” for the insecurity in the strait.
Regional reactions have been varied. Oman and Qatar have been more vocal about the need for immediate de-escalation and a ceasefire, while Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have shown more ambivalence. Egypt, meanwhile, is said to be working with Pakistan to bring the two sides back to the table.
Markets have responded to the uncertainty: crude oil prices jumped more than 4 percent in the wake of the ship seizure and the growing doubts over the next round of negotiations.
