Diplomats try to arrange second round of US-Iran talks amid American blockade

Diplomats have been working through back channels to arrange a new round of talks between the US and Iran after Washington enacted its blockade of Iranian ports, while Tehran threatened to strike targets across the war-weary region.

US President Donald Trump said a second round of talks could happen “over the next two days”, telling the New York Post the negotiations could be held again in the capital of Pakistan.

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres concurred, saying it is “highly probable” that talks will restart. He cited a meeting he had with Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the first direct talks in decades between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the US concluded on an positive note, according to Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter.

Mr Leiter, who was the only diplomat to speak after the two-hour talks, said the two countries were “on the same side of the equation” in “liberating Lebanon” from Hezbollah.

An initial round of talks aimed at permanently ending the US-Iran conflict failed to produce an agreement last weekend. The White House said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a central sticking point.

A US official said on Tuesday that fresh talks with Iran were still under discussion and that nothing had been scheduled.

Though the ceasefire appeared to hold, the showdown over the Strait of Hormuz risked reigniting hostilities and deepening the regional war’s economic fallout.

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.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,000 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.

The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash flow that has been vital to keeping Iran running.

Both the nature of enforcement and the extent to which ships will comply remained unclear during the first full day of the blockade on Tuesday. Tankers approaching the strait on Monday turned around shortly after it took effect, though one reversed course again and transited the waterway.

The tanker Rich Starry had been waiting off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to shipping data firm Lloyd’s List, which cited data from the energy cargo-tracking firm Vortexa.

It was not immediately clear whether the tanker had earlier docked in Iran. Yet it was listed by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as linked to Iranian shipping.

Lloyd’s List, citing ship registry and tracking data, reported that the vessel is owned by a Chinese shipping company and ultimately bound for China.

US Central Command said no ships made it past the blockade in the first 24 hours, while six merchant vessels complied with direction from US forces to turn around and re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said Chinese tankers will not be allowed passage through the strait.

“So they’re not going to be able to get their oil,” he told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of IMF-World Bank meetings.

In rare public criticism seemingly directed at Mr Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping said nations should “oppose the world’s retrogression to the law of the jungle”. Speaking during a reception for the Spanish prime minister, Mr Xi said nations should work to “jointly safeguard genuine multilateralism”.

Since the start of the war, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels avoiding the waterway.

Iran’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.

Mr Trump said on Monday that Iran’s control of the strait amounted to blackmail and extortion as the US blockade took effect. He said in a social media post that Iran’s navy had been “completely obliterated”, but it still had “fast attack ships”.

He warned that “if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED”.

Iran threatened to retaliate against Persian Gulf ports if attacked.

“If you fight, we will fight,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in a statement addressed to Mr Trump.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will co-chair a conference on Friday for nations willing to deploy warships to escort oil tankers and container ships through the strait.

The deployment will happen “when security conditions allow”, Mr Macron’s office said on Tuesday.

The talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon were expected to be preliminary, focused on setting parameters rather than resolving core issues.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is facilitating the talks, downplayed expectations for any immediate agreement. He called the talks a “historic opportunity” but said the process was “working against decades of history and complexities” that will not be quickly resolved.

Mr Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US, said after the talks that both countries saw eye-to-eye in several areas.

“The Lebanese government made it very clear that they will no longer be occupied by Hezbollah, and Iran has been weakened. Hezbollah is dramatically weakened,” Mr Leiter said. “This is an opportunity.”

After the ceasefire in Iran, Israel pressed ahead with its air and ground campaign, insisting that the truce does not apply to fighting in Lebanon.

It has, however, halted strikes in the country’s capital since April 8, after a deadly bombardment that hit several crowded commercial and residential areas in central Beirut and killed more than 350 people in one day.

The deaths sparked an international outcry and threats by Iran that it would end the ceasefire. Overall, the fighting has killed more than 2,100 people and displaced in excess of one million others, according to Lebanese authorities.

Lebanese officials have pushed for a ceasefire. Israel has framed the negotiations around Hezbollah’s disarmament and a potential peace deal, without publicly committing to halting hostilities or withdrawing its forces.

Israel wants Lebanon’s government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much as was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades and said on Monday that it will not abide by any agreements that may result from the talks.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday floated the idea of co-operation with the Lebanese government to dismantle Hezbollah.