US tightens Iran sanctions as talks falter
US President Donald Trump said he told his top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, not to travel to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran on Saturday. “If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Trump said on social media.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won’t negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports. Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the US “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies in Iran.
The Trump administration is also placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil.
The move announced Friday is part of the administration’s threat to impose secondary sanctions on entities doing business with Iran in an effort to cut off Iran’s oil exports, which are a key source of its revenue.
Pakistan’s top political and military leadership is continuing to mediate between the US and Iran, with indirect ceasefire talks still alive despite mounting tensions between the sides, two Pakistani officials said Sunday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday evening, officials said. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Araghchi is expected back in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on Sunday.
Trump said Thursday that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The meeting was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries this month. The initial 10-day ceasefire had been due to expire on Monday.
Airlines worldwide have begun cancelling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up prices. Experts have offered information to travellers about what to do if a flight is cancelled.
