Iran's Pezeshkian stresses importance of diplomacy to reduce ‌tensions with US

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - DUBAI — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce ‌tensions with the US, but added that vigilance and distrust in interactions with Washington were an "undeniable necessity", according to the state news agency IRNA quoted by Reuters.
A two-week ceasefire between Iran and the US is set to ⁠expire on Wednesday, with US representatives set to reach Islamabad for Iran negotiations on Monday while Tehran has yet to announce whether it will send a delegation to Pakistan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephone conversation with Pezeshkian and discussed the "current regional situation".
In a telephone call with President Pezeshkian on Sunday, Sharif discussed his own recent engagements with a number of world leaders, including the leadership of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye,” the prime minister’s Office said in a handout.
Iranian state TV quoted an unnamed informed source as saying there were no plans for a second round of negotiations due to the US' "excessive ‌and ⁠irrational" demands as well as its changing stances.
The adversaries are at loggerheads over the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran tightened control over maritime transit as the US continues to ⁠blockade Iranian ports and on Sunday took custody of a vessel trying to get past the American blockade.
Both Iran and ⁠the US have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Pezeshkian said the US blockade showed ⁠that Washington was moving toward "repeating previous patterns and betraying diplomacy", according to state TV.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Washington has shown it was "not serious" about pursuing the diplomatic process and Tehran would not change its clearly stated demands, adding that it did not believe in deadlines or ultimatums when safeguarding national interests.
The US had hoped to start negotiations in Pakistan shortly before the two-week ceasefire expires, with sweeping security preparations under way in Islamabad, but Baghaei said the US was "insisting on some unreasonable and unrealistic positions".
A senior Iranian source told Reuters the continuation of the US blockade on Iranian ports was undermining the prospect of peace talks, and Tehran's "defensive capabilities", including its missile program, were not open to negotiation.
A Pakistani security source said Pakistan's key mediator, Field Marshal Asim Munir, had told US President Donald Trump the ⁠blockade was an obstacle to talks, and that Trump had replied that he would consider the advice.
The US has maintained a blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran has lifted and then reimposed its own blockade on marine traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied gas supply.
Oil prices rose more than 6% and stock markets wobbled as traders fretted that the ceasefire would collapse and traffic in and out of the Gulf would remain at a bare minimum.
The US military said it had fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship headed towards Iran's Bandar Abbas port on Sunday after a six-hour standoff, disabling its engines. US Central Command released video showing Marines descending ropes from helicopters onto the vessel.
Iran's military said the ship had been traveling from China and accused the US of "armed piracy", according to state media. They said they were ready to confront US forces over the "blatant aggression", but were constrained by the presence of crew members’ families on board. — Agencies

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