Iranian commander warns world hours away from | Political News

Iran threatened to obliterate the Middle East’s complete oil industry ought to battle with the U.S. resume.

The risk, issued by a commander, comes hours before a ceasefire between the 2 nations is set to expire. The tenuous two-week settlement, drafted to enable for direct peace talks between Iran and the U.S. in Pakistan, has not been renewed.

Last-minute ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran seemed unsure Tuesday as a two-week truce was set to expire and both international locations warned that, without a deal, they had been ready to resume combating. It comes after Iran’s chilling warning to the US that a miscalculation will deliver ‘remaining chastisement’.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, anticipated to lead U.S. negotiators if talks continue, called off a journey to Pakistan, a U.S. official said. And Iran said it hadn’t determined whether or not to take part.

Pakistani leaders, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, labored intensively late Tuesday to get both sides to agree to a second spherical of ceasefire talks, according to two officers who spoke anonymously to The Associated Press.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran’s state TV there was “no final decision” on whether or not to attend because of “unacceptable actions” by the U.S., apparently referencing its recent blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

As Vance put on hold a return trip to Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected in Washington on Tuesday afternoon for consultations about how to proceed, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

The official cautioned that Trump could change his mind on negotiating with Iran at any time, and declined to predict what would happen if the current ceasefire expires without another meeting. The official said Trump has options short of restarting airstrikes.

Trump says he doesn’t favor extending ceasefire

Both sides remain dug in rhetorically. Trump has warned that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no settlement before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator said that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that have not yet been revealed.

The ceasefire, which began April 8, could be extended if talks resume, though Trump said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC: “Well, I don’t want to do that.”

A senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to destroy the region’s oil industry if war with the United States resumes. “If southern neighbors allow the enemy to use their facilities to attack Iran, they should say goodbye to oil production in the Middle East region,” Gen. Majid Mousavi told an Iranian news site.

Strait of Hormuz control key to negotiations

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday that Tehran has “received some sign” that the U.S. is ready to stop its blockade of Iranian ports. The U.S. had made no public statements about lifting the blockade.

Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said ending the blockade remains a condition for Iran to rejoin peace talks. When that happens, he said, “I think the next round of the negotiations will take place.”

The U.S. imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.

Iran’s grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring. Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at close to $95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, the day that Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping. Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded.

Over the weekend, Iran said that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide gap remains between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the strait.

US says its forces board sanctioned oil tanker

On Tuesday, the U.S. said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in Asia. The Pentagon said in a social media post that U.S. forces boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.”

The U.S. military did not say where the vessel had been boarded, though ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday. The Pentagon statement added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

The U.S. military on Sunday seized an Iranian container ship, the first interception under the blockade. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

Pakistan hopeful talks will proceed

Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation to resume talks that mark the highest-level negotiations between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first round April 11 and 12 ended without an agreement.

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Tuesday with the acting U.S. ambassador in Islamabad to urge a ceasefire extension. Dar also met with the ambassador from China, a key trading partner with Iran.

Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed 1000’s of personnel and elevated patrols along routes main to the airport.