While U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday afternoon, April 21, that he would extend the ceasefire, at the request of Pakistani officials, to allow the Iranian government time to present a unified proposal for negotiation, as of this writing, a time has not yet been set for the resumption of talks.
Up until the announcement, the Iranians had been signalling that they would not likely send a delegation to Islamabad. “No final decision has been made yet on whether to participate in the Pakistan talks,” Esmail Baghaei said in a televised interview on IRIB’s News Network, PressTV reported late afternoon Tehran time. “The reason is the contradictory messages, inconsistent behavior and unacceptable actions of the American side,” he said.
Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of Iran’s parliament who participated in the April 11 negotiations, argued on X that Iran should not return for a second round of talks. “Negotiating with the vile American regime under the shadow of threats, attacks, and ceasefire violations is not only meaningless, but also harmful, and it emboldens the enemy to become even more greedy,” he said
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iranian parliament speaker and lead Iranian negotiator, said on X yesterday: “Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table—in his own imagination—into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”
