Iran on Sunday denied it would participate in new peace talks with the United States, its state news agency reported.
The denial came hours after US President Donald Trump said Iranian negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday for a second round of peace talks.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited no specific source in its report that Iran had rejected the talks.
“Iran stated that its absence from the second round of talks stems from what it called Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire," IRNA wrote.
Iran’s decision to walk away from negotiations, specifically citing its demand to end the US blockade of Iranian ports, came as Trump announced in a Truth Social post that the US had intercepted a ship called the TOUSKA in the Gulf of Oman.
Trump said the US Navy warned the ship to stop. When it did not, the US Navy fired upon it and the vessel was seized. The US has been operating a naval blockade of ships entering and exiting Iranian ports since last week.
Earlier Sunday, Trump stated in a social media post that his representatives were heading for Pakistan to resume peace talks with Iranian negotiators on Monday. This follows an initial round of face-to-face talks last weekend that concluded without an agreement to end hostilities.
If the talks were to take place, the US delegation to Pakistan would once again be headed by Vice President JD Vance, two senior US officials told MS Now. Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also would be traveling to Islamabad for the talks, according to the White House.
The apparent diplomatic setback came with shipping still blocked in the Strait of Hormuz and could set the stage for a renewed surge in oil prices when markets reopen after the weekend within a few hours.
Iran has blocked the strait to ships other than its own since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on February 28. It announced on Friday that it would reopen the waterway. But it reversed that decision on Saturday after Trump declined to lift a US blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said talks to end the war with the US and Israel are continuing but that his country stands ready to resume the conflict and warned the US against using a naval blockade in the strait.
“It is not the case that we think just because we are negotiating, the armed forces are not ready," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in televised remarks late Saturday according to a report on Iranian state media. “Rather, just as the people are in the streets, our armed forces are also ready."