While the talks between Tehran and Washington have failed, the mediators in Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey still see a ray of hope in the coming days.
With the current ceasefire deal expiring on April 21, the mediators are hoping to bring both the US and Iran back to the table and bridge the gap in negotiations.
"We are not in a complete deadlock. The door is not closed yet. Both sides are bargaining. It's a bazaar," Axios quoted a regional source in the know of the negotiations as saying.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that full efforts are still being made to resolve the conflict. Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar said Islamabad will try to set up a new round of dialogue in the coming days. Dar on Sunday spoke to Egyptian and Turkish foreign ministers in separate phone calls, following which they spoke to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
This comes as US President Donald Trump has warned on resuming strikes if the US naval blockade on Iranian ports in Hormuz fail to make Tehran change its stance. Trump reportedly does not want Iran to use the Strait of Hormuz as a leverage in the ongoing talks.
Speaking to reporters outside the Oval Office, Trump on Monday claimed that Tehran approached Washington seeking another round of negotiations. "We've been called by the other side. They'd like to make a deal very badly." However, he did not reveal whether the US agreed to resume the talks.
The US Central Command CENTCOM said the naval blockade will not affect "vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports."
US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Islamabad to lead the negotiation, said that Tehran had failed to assure that it will not seek to develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran's chief negotiator and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said it is for the US to decide "whether it can gain our trust or not."
