US forces board sanctioned oil tanker amid uncertainty over talks

US forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in Asia, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

In a social media post, the Pentagon said US forces "conducted a right-of-visit maritime interdiction" and boarded the M/T Tifani "without incident." Ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The announcement described the incident as happening overnight, adding that "international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels."

UNCERTAINTY OVER IRAN-US TALKS

Meanwhile, two regional officials said Tuesday that the United States and Iran have signaled they will hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Islamabad as a fragile two-week truce was due to expire.

Neither the US nor Iran has publicly confirmed the timing of the talks, with Iranian state television denying any official was already in Pakistan's capital.

Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday to lead their teams in the talks, the officials told The Associated Press.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. A ceasefire that began April 8 was set to expire Wednesday.

Both sides remain dug in rhetorically, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning that "lots of bombs" will "start going off" if there's no agreement before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran's chief negotiator saying that Tehran has "new cards on the battlefield" that haven't yet been revealed.

The ceasefire seemed likely to be extended if talks resume. White House officials have said that Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran hasn't said who it might send, and Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that "no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad so far."

Iranian state TV has long been controlled by hardliners within Iran's theocracy, and the on-screen alert likely reflects the ongoing internal debate within Iran's theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy's seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ CONTROL KEY TO TALKS

The U.S. has instituted a blockade of Iranian ports to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world's natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.

Iran's iron grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring, and Brent Crude, the international standard, was trading at close to $95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, the day that Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping, and Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded along the waterway.

European Union transportation ministers were meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how to protect consumers after the head of the Energy Agency warned that Europe has "maybe six weeks" of jet fuel supplies remaining.

Over the weekend, Iran said that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide gap remains between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran's nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the strait.

Qalibaf on Tuesday accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender and said that on the contrary, Iran has been preparing "to reveal new cards on the battlefield." "We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats," he wrote in an X post.

PAKISTAN HOPEFUL TALKS WILL PROCEED

Despite the rhetorical skirmishing between the two sides, Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation late Tuesday so that the talks could resume.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday spoke with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, to discuss the latest regional developments, as part of diplomatic preparations, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.

Dar also met with the ambassador of China, which is a key trading partner with Iran, as the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said that the conflict was at a "critical stage of transition between war and peace."

"At such a moment, it is all the more necessary for all parties to show the utmost sincerity, remain committed to a political solution, maintain the momentum of the ceasefire and negotiations," ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.

Security has been tightened across Pakistan's capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport.

The arrangements appear stricter than those put in place during the first round of talks held in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, suggesting the possibility of high-level participation if negotiations make progress, said Syed Mohammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst.

"Pakistan appears to be preparing for the possibility of visits by top U.S. and Iranian leaders if the talks advance to a stage where an agreement could be signed," he told The Associated Press.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.

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