Iran war, day 44, peace talks end without a deal
Live updates continue below this post – but here are the key developments from the stalled US-Iranian peace talks in Pakistan
- Donald Trump has said the US Navy will begin the process of blockading “any and all ships” trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz after talks to end the war broke down;
- It came after US vice president JD Vance gave an update following the conclusion of peace talks, saying Iranian negotiators “have chosen not to accept our terms”, including a commitment from Tehran not to seek or develop nuclear weapons;
- He subsequently added: “So we go back to the United States, having not come to an agreement”;
- Iran said the US “ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation” during peace talks in Islamabad;
- Meanwhile, the UK health secretary said the government’s “difference of agreement” with the US over Iran has “strained” its relationship with Donald Trump’s administration.
Strait of Hormuz ‘tollbooth’ could ‘threaten entire network around the world’, retired Navy commander says
Speaking before Donald Trump announced the US Navy would blockade the Strait of Hormuz, retired Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe told Sky News that if Tehran is able to establish a “tollbooth” for ships to pass through the strait, it “threatens the entire [trade] network around the world”.
“If those guardrails are completely removed, then the whole thing becomes a free-for-all, and then global trade becomes up for grabs. The machine that’s worked for so long stops working,” he warned.
He said Tehran was “weaponing trade” through the strait “as the Houthis did before them”.
He cautioned that Iran “has enough left in the locker, despite the beating” to “just go back and threaten, again, anyone who tries to run the gauntlet without their permission”.
US Navy will blockade Strait of Hormuz, Trump says
The US Navy will begin the process of blockading “any and all ships” trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump has said.
“I have instructed our navy to seek and interdict every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.
The US will “begin destroying” the mines Iran has laid in the strait, he added.
He continued: “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”
Trump warned “we are FULLY LOCKED AND LOADED”, and added that the US military “will finish up the little that is left of Iran!”
In a follow-up post, he went on to say “IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS”.
He said Iran’s negotiators were “very unyielding as to the single most important issue and, as I have always said, right from the beginning, and many years ago, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
Starmer ‘urged both sides to find a way through’ after failure to reach a deal
We’ve just received a statement from Downing Street about a phone call between Sir Keir Starmer and the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tarik al Said.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “They discussed the peace talks held in Pakistan over the weekend and urged both sides to find a way through.
“It was vital there was a continuation of the ceasefire, and that all parties avoided any further escalation, the leaders agreed.”
The spokesperson said the prime minister also thanked the Omani leader for their efforts to “rescue sailors from vessels in distress in the region” amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian attacks.
“Reflecting on international efforts to coordinate safe passage for shipping in the region, the prime minister said that following meetings convened by the foreign secretary and British military planners, partners continued to work towards restoring freedom of navigation for the long term,” they continued.
‘Neither side has an appetite for relaunching the war’, expert says
Neither the Iranians nor the US “has an appetite for relaunching the war”, an expert on the Middle East has said.
“Iran has suffered considerably from this war,” Yassamine Mather, from the University of Oxford’s Middle East Centre, told Sky News.
Meanwhile, the US “doesn’t want, at this stage, to restart military action”.
“However,” she said, “if in the next few days new talks are not planned, we are back at square one.”
Iran’s key demands include war reparations and controlling strait, official says
Tehran’s key demands to bring about the end of the war include war reparations and controlling the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s first vice president Reza Aref has said.
He said Tehran sought US recognition of its control of transit through the vital strait during the talks in Islamabad, which ended without a conclusion.
Aref said having “authority in the Strait of Hormuz” and pursuing compensation for the damage caused by US and Israeli strikes were “the rights of the [Iranian] people.”
“This is our firm commitment to a strong Iran,” he wrote on social media.
US ‘failed to gain trust of Iranian delegation’, says Parliamentary Speaker
The US “ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation” during peace talks in Islamabad, Tehran’s Parliamentary Speaker has said.
In a post on X, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Washington “understood our logic and principles, and now it is time to decide whether it can earn our trust or not”.
He added: “We certainly consider diplomacy of authority to be another method, alongside military struggle, for achieving the rights of the Iranian people, and we will not stop for a moment from trying to consolidate the achievements of the forty days of Iranian national defence.”
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