US President Donald Trump said it “looks very good” that the United States and Iran will reach an agreement to end the war and that US and Iranian representatives could meet this weekend.
“I think we’re very close to an agreement with Iran,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on 16 April.
The US president said he was unsure whether the two-week ceasefire, which ends on 22 April, would need to be extended and that “if there is no agreement … Fighting will resume.” He did not specify a timeline.
Trump also repeated his statement on the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which begins on 16 April, and said it was about Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah is both a militant group and a political party that controls much of southern Lebanon. The United States considers it a terrorist organisation, while the European Union has blacklisted only its armed wing.
Trump said he hoped to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House soon.
US President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of Iran after US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad on 11-12 April failed to produce an agreement to end the war, which began with US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on 28 February.
On 16 April, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran and the US had made limited progress toward a possible Pakistan-brokered deal, but serious differences remained.
He added that “the fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium and the duration of Iran’s nuclear restrictions are among the most contentious issues for which no solution has yet been found.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the date for the second round of talks has not yet been set.
On 14 April, President Trump speculated that a new round of talks with Iran could resume in a day or two.