Iran Says No Talks If Threats Continue as U.S.-Iran Truce Nears Expiration

[The Financial News] The Iranian negotiator facing the end of a two-week truce with the United States of America (U.S.) warned that talks cannot continue if U.S. threats persist. The Iranian government has still not formally announced that it will enter negotiations, even as the deadline approaches.
On the 20th, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). He had met with the U.S. delegation on the 11th, together with Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, for the first round of ceasefire talks, but the meeting produced no results. Ghalibaf said Donald Trump, President of the United States, was "trying to turn the negotiating table into a table of surrender by imposing blockades and violating the ceasefire agreement, or seeking a pretext to start another war." He added, "We will not accept negotiations held under the shadow of threats." He also said, "Over the past two weeks, we have been preparing to bring new cards to the battlefield."
Trump, who has been attacking Iran since Feb. 28, wrote on Truth Social on the 7th, "I agree to stop bombing and attacking Iran for two weeks, on the condition that the Iranian government opens the Strait of Hormuz completely, immediately, and safely." Most foreign media outlets then reported that the truce would last until the 21st.
However, in an interview with another outlet on the 20th, Trump later said the truce would end "Wednesday evening, Washington, D.C. time (the 22nd)." He said a second round of ceasefire talks with Iran would begin in Islamabad, Pakistan, on the 21st, and claimed the chance of extending the truce was "very small." Foreign media outlets predicted that if Iran takes part in the second round, Ghalibaf would again lead the delegation, as he did in the first round.
By contrast, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on the 19th that "reports that a second round of talks will be held in Islamabad are not true" and argued that "the prospects for substantive negotiations are unclear under the current situation." Pakistan Observer, a Pakistani media outlet, cited officials on the 20th as saying that the Iranian delegation would arrive in Islamabad on the 21st for a second round of ceasefire talks with the U.S.
pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter