US-Iran talks remain stalled

Hopes for a rapprochement between the United States and Iran faded further at the start of a new week, as face-to-face talks to end the two-month conflict remain deadlocked, with both sides firmly clinging to their respective preconditions.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif via phone on Saturday night that Tehran will never accept "imposed negotiations" conducted under military threats and a maritime blockade, according to an official statement.

Washington should first remove "operational obstacles" to clear the way for a new round of substantive talks, Pezeshkian said.

The deadlock deepened over the weekend as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrapped up consultations with Pakistan's military and civilian leaders, while US President Donald Trump scrapped a planned Islamabad visit by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, delivering setbacks to fledgling peace efforts.

Araghchi described his one-day working visit to Pakistan as "very fruitful".

"I shared Iran's position on a viable framework to secure a permanent end to the conflict. It remains to be seen whether the US demonstrates genuine diplomatic sincerity," he said on social media.

On Sunday, Araghchi traveled to Oman, a key regional mediator that has facilitated past US-Iran discussions across the Strait of Hormuz.

In Muscat, he held talks with Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, with the two sides discussing regional developments, ongoing mediation initiatives and joint efforts to de-escalate tensions, Oman News Agency reported. Araghchi was scheduled to return to Islamabad before heading to Russia.

Pakistani authorities, meanwhile, have rolled back the stringent security restrictions imposed amid days of heightened alert ahead of the stalled US-Iran negotiations.

Trump, who was safely evacuated from the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday following an on-site shooting incident, said the episode would not weaken his resolve in the Iran conflict, adding that there appeared to be no direct link between the violence and the conflict.

He earlier canceled his envoys' trip, arguing the proposed journey involved excessive travel and expense for what he called an insufficient Iranian offer. After the pullout, Iran "offered a lot, but not enough", he said, indicating the ball was now in Iran's court.

"If they want to talk, all they have to do is call," Trump wrote on social media.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that the US had seen some progress from the Iranian side. Vice-President JD Vance, who led an unsuccessful first round of talks in Islamabad this month, was ready to travel to Pakistan again, she said.

'Pressure campaign'

Mark Pfeifle, who served as a senior national security adviser to former US president George W. Bush, told Al Jazeera that the last-minute trip cancellation marked a retreat from diplomatic engagement and a return to Washington's long-standing "pressure campaign".

"The US seeks to cripple Iran through economic coercion, while Iran leverages its control over the Strait of Hormuz to pressure the West," he said. "The two sides are locked in a protracted standoff, each testing the other's endurance to see which side concedes first."

The conflict, in which a ceasefire is in force, began with US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Feb 28. Iran has since struck Israel and US targets in neighboring Gulf states. Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,496 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah broke out in March.

Regional tensions have escalated further since Saturday, as another fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was shaken with cross-border exchanges of fire.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported on Sunday that Israel's military began striking the country's south after issuing an evacuation warning for seven locations.

"Israeli warplanes launched a strike" in Kfar Tebnit — one of the locations included in the warning — the agency said, adding that there were reports of casualties.