A renewed diplomatic push is under way to revive talks between the United States and Iran amid a fragile two-week ceasefire agreed last week following nearly six weeks of fighting in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The truce, which expires on April 22, has created a small window for negotiations to end the war, which has killed more than 4,000 people across the Middle East, overwhelmingly in Iran and Lebanon.
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The first round of talks was held on Saturday in Islamabad under Pakistani mediation, but failed to secure an understanding or agreement between Tehran and Washington.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is on tour this week, making a flurry of stops including in Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, to shore up support for the process and prevent a return to all-out war.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump says the war is “very close to being over” and has signalled that a second round of talks could resume within days, again potentially in the Pakistani capital.
Here is what we know about the latest mediation efforts:
What happened in the first round?
The first round of high-level talks took place in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, and marked the most significant direct engagement between the US and Iran in decades.
Mediated by Pakistan, the talks lasted more than 20 hours and included both indirect and direct exchanges between delegations led by US Vice President JD Vance and senior Iranian officials.
According to reports, the discussions focused on several core issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme, sanctions relief, Iran’s frozen assets, and control of the Strait of Hormuz.
The talks concluded without a resolution or memorandum of understanding, with Vance claiming Iran chose “not to accept our terms”, adding that the US needs to see a “fundamental commitment” from Tehran not to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the leader of Tehran’s delegation, said it raised “forward-looking” initiatives, but the US had failed to gain the trust of his delegation in the talks.
What do we know about the next round of potential talks?
Reports in US and international media suggest there are growing prospects for a second round that could take place in a matter of days.
On Wednesday, the AP news agency reported that Washington and Tehran had given an “in principle agreement” to extend the ceasefire to allow for diplomatic overtures, citing unnamed regional officials.
However, a US official was quoted by Reuters as saying that Washington has not formally agreed to the extension of its ceasefire with Iran. There is “continued engagement between the US and Iran to reach a deal”, the US official said.
Meanwhile, world leaders have made differing statements over the past week about the ceasefire and the chance for further talks.
On Tuesday, US President Trump suggested talks could resume within days. “You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we’re more inclined to go there [Islamabad],” he told a New York Post reporter in Islamabad.
However, Pakistan’s PM Sharif began a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye on Wednesday to rally support for the negotiations, making it unlikely that talks could be held in the timeframe Trump was suggesting.
On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was hopeful about negotiations despite roadblocks.
“We are conveying the necessary suggestions and carrying out initiatives to ease tensions, extend the ceasefire and maintain talks. There can be no negotiating with clenched fists,” Erdogan said.
While reports, including Trump’s own remarks, suggest that Islamabad would be the likely host, no announcement has been made.
What are the main sticking points in negotiations?
Nuclear programme
The thorniest issue remains Iran’s nuclear programme. In particular, the US and Israel are pushing for complete restrictions on uranium enrichment, and have accused Iran of working towards building a nuclear weapon, while providing no evidence for their claims. In March 2025, Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of National Intelligence, testified to Congress that the US “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”.
Iran insists its enrichment effort is for civilian purposes only. It is a signatory to the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
In 2015, the US was a signatory to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under then-US President Barack Obama. In that agreement, Iran pledged to limit its uranium enrichment to 3.67 percent and to comply with inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in return for the removal of international sanctions.
However, in 2018, during his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA despite the IAEA saying Iran had complied with the agreement up to that point.
Strait of Hormuz
Access to and control of the vital waterway connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea remains a major flashpoint. One-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies are shipped through the Strait of Hormuz in peacetime. Since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran at the end of February, shipping through the passage has fallen by 95 percent as Iran has threatened to target tankers. During the conflict, Iran has allowed some ships it sees as friendly, as well as others that pay a toll, to pass.
The US wants free passage through the waterway, while Iran insists on its sovereignty over the strait, saying all “non-hostile” ships can pass through.
Moreover, Iranian officials insist on having the authority to levy tolls on ships passing through the strategic strait, including after the war concludes.
In a further escalation, Trump imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports on Monday, creating another obstacle to the prospects of talks restarting.
Lebanon
A key demand from Iran is that Israel end its offensive against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tehran said the ceasefire agreed last week included the war in Lebanon, but the US and Israel have both rejected that. Trump has called Israel’s assaults on its neighbour “a separate skirmish” even though Hezbollah entered the war in defence of Iran.
An initial social media post by Pakistani PM Sharif announcing the ceasefire included Lebanon. Following that announcement, however, Israel launched its most widespread attacks since March, when fighting with Hezbollah began, striking more than 100 targets across the country in just one day – Wednesday – last week.
Hezbollah is Tehran’s most powerful regional ally and a central part of the “axis of resistance”, a network of armed groups across the Middle East aligned with Iran against Israel, including Yemen’s Houthis and a collection of armed groups in Iraq.
While Israel and Lebanon held direct talks in Washington on Tuesday, the first formal meeting between the two countries, Israel says it will not stop its attacks on Hezbollah.
