Overview
- Iranian state TV says no delegation has left for Islamabad on Tuesday, even as Washington plans to send Vice-President J.D. Vance, with the two-week truce due to expire Wednesday.
- Pakistan has tightened security across Islamabad and prepared venues for a potential second round of talks, deploying nearly 20,000 personnel despite Tehran's wavering participation.
- U.S. forces boarded and seized the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska on Sunday near Bandar Abbas, which the Pentagon calls blockade enforcement and Iran condemns as armed piracy.
- President Donald Trump says Iran will negotiate and warns of severe consequences if it refuses, while Iran’s chief negotiator says talks will not occur under threats and hints at new battlefield responses.
- Oil prices eased and stocks rose on Tuesday on hopes for diplomacy, but a breakdown would threaten flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that carries about one-fifth of seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas.