The United States, Israel and Iran are now in their eighth\u00a0week of conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fragile,\u00a0two-week\u00a0ceasefire, which\u00a0is set to\u00a0expire on\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0unless the U.S. and Iran reach a nuclear deal before then or both sides agree to extend it, remains in limbo.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump, who has vacillated between\u00a0making optimistic predictions\u00a0about diplomacy\u00a0and\u00a0belligerent\u00a0threats to restart the war, says his negotiating team will be on the ground in\u00a0Islamabad, Pakistan, on Monday evening to try to make a deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So far, the Iranians have not publicly agreed to this second in-person meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A White House official told ABC News that Vice President JD Vance will\u00a0<\/em>attend negotiations in Islamabad alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ahead of the\u00a0potential\u00a0meeting, the\u00a0key terms\u00a0of the ceasefire have\u00a0fallen apart.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rather than opening the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz,\u00a0the critical\u00a0commercial waterway\u00a0that before the war carried 20% of the world\u2019s oil, both sides have\u00a0sought\u00a0to assert\u00a0more\u00a0control over the\u00a0area.\u00a0<\/p>\n Iranian forces\u00a0have once again blocked all\u00a0commercial\u00a0vessels from transiting, and the U.S. continues to enforce a military blockade of all ships\u00a0leaving\u00a0or entering\u00a0all Iranian ports.\u00a0On Saturday, Iranian forces fired on commercial vessels in the Strait, which the president later said was\u00a0a violation of the ceasefire.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine displays a map showing the blockade line in the Strait of Hormuz during a briefing on the Iran war, at the Pentagon in Washington, April 16, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On social media Sunday\u00a0morning, President Trump said the U.S. is offering a \u201creasonable DEAL,\u201d and threatened that if the Iranians\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0sign it, \u201cthe United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In the hours before extending the last deadline\u00a0for\u00a0a\u00a0nuclear\u00a0deal just under two weeks ago,\u00a0Trump\u00a0threatened \u201can entire civilization will die\u201d if the Iranians did not comply.<\/p>\n The president made more threats in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.\u00a0\u201cIf the deal isn\u2019t done, the deal that we made, then I\u2019m going to take out their bridges and their power plants,” Trump said. \u201cIf they don\u2019t sign this thing, the whole country is going to get blown up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re preparing to hit them harder than any\u00a0country\u00a0has ever been hit before because you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon,” he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz defended the president\u2019s latest threats<\/a>, telling\u00a0\u201cThis Week\u201d\u00a0co-anchor\u00a0Jonathan Karl\u00a0that Iranian infrastructure\u00a0could be taken out \u201crelatively easily\u201d and\u00a0that doing so would be \u201clawful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Such attacks\u00a0would not be considered a war crime because\u00a0Iran\u2019s infrastructure has dual military and civilian use, Waltz said, citing\u00a0World War II as a\u00a0precedent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if you go back in the history of warfare, go all the way back to World War II, of course, we bombed and took down bridges, other infrastructure, power plants that, yes, could be used for civilian, but also are used to manufacture drones and missiles,” Waltz said\u00a0<\/p>\n Tensions grew even higher Sunday after Trump\u00a0announced the U.S. Navy\u00a0seized\u00a0an Iranian-flagged\u00a0cargo ship\u00a0in the Gulf of Oman\u00a0after it\u00a0attempted\u00a0to evade the blockade.\u00a0<\/p>\n President Donald Trump speaks to the media, before boarding Air Force One on his way to Virginia, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, April 10, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Jim Watson\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the\u00a0engineroom,\u201d the president said on his Truth Social platform, adding U.S. Marines have custody of the ship.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. Central Command confirmed the actions in a statement late Sunday and said U.S.\u00a0Navy sailors aboard the\u00a0Guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance\u00a0signaled to the cargo vessel to vacate the\u00a0engine\u00a0room before \u201cfiring several rounds\u201d\u00a0that disabled\u00a0the ship’s propulsion.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Iranian state media, Abbas Araghchi,\u00a0Iran\u2019s\u00a0foreign\u00a0minister, told Pakistani mediators that \u201cthe threat to Iran’s ports and ships and Washington’s irrational demands are a sign of its lack of seriousness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Iranian Military Headquarters said in a statement to state media that the U.S. has broken the ceasefire\u00a0and that it would “soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military.”<\/p>\n Two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted operations in the Strait of Hormuz as U.S. Central Command forces began setting conditions for clearing mines, April 11, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sgt. 1st Class Michael Hunnisett\/US Navy<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As for the terms of any\u00a0possible deal, negotiators have said\u00a0very little\u00a0publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. officials and other sources connected to the talks tell ABC News\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0still no agreement on how long Iran would suspend uranium enrichment or the terms around it,\u00a0a key\u00a0sticking point in the talks.<\/p>\n Trump has said Iran would suspend\u00a0its\u00a0enrichment indefinitely, but ABC News has reported there are back-and-forth offers, including a recently proposed 20-year suspension that the Iranians rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n A\u00a0U.S. official also said\u00a0negotiators are discussing multiple ways to address\u00a0Iran\u2019s highly enriched uranium, including proposals to dilute and remove it from the country. Iran has resisted U.S. offers to dilute the material inside the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s\u00a0also the issue of Iran\u2019s frozen monetary assets. The president has said publicly that Iran will receive no payments in any form, but privately, officials say the issue is being discussed.\u00a0They said, however, Iran would not reap any financial benefits without first\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0compliance with other terms of the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"America\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/bf33e85e-b123-48e3-859a-b54b0e760e80\/caine-2-gty-gmh-260416_1776343511622_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"America\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>![\"chairman\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/75f937b2-9462-4aa8-9ff0-e945b2d4709a\/donald-trump-6-gty-gmh-260410_1775856309959_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"chairman\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>![\"PHOTO:](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/59f2b33c-b8e7-48aa-a397-d99c976144a5\/iran-1-ht-gmh-260414_1776167361553_hpMain.jpg?w=375)
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>