Trump threatens Iran as Vance heads to Pakistan for talks

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Iran as Vice President JD Vance traveled to Pakistan for talks to end the war, with Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz’s effective closure looming over diplomatic efforts.

Trump posted on social media Friday that Tehran’s only leverage is “short term extortion of the world by using International Waterways” — a reference to Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for oil and natural gas that remains largely shut, raising global energy prices. Trump declared that the “Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards.”

While the two-week ceasefire was broadly holding across the Middle East, the situation with the strait and continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon threatened to complicate negotiations due to begin over the weekend in Islamabad.

The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, has arrived in Islamabad, the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported Friday.

Before arriving, Ghalibaf pushed back, stressing on social media that a ceasefire in Lebanon is one measure that “must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.” The other is the “release of Iran’s blocked assets,” he added, without being more specific.

The president told reporters late Friday that he expected that the strait would be opened “pretty quickly” and warned that if it didn’t he could resume military action.

Trump earlier had detailed that threat to the New York Post, saying U.S. warships were being reloaded with “the best ammunition” to launch fresh attacks if talks faltered. When asked if he believed negotiations would be successful, Trump told the Post: “We’re going to find out in about 24 hours.”

Before departing for Pakistan, Vance told reporters Trump had provided “clear guidelines” for the talks and the vice president urged Iran to take the negotiations seriously, warning Tehran not “to try to play us.”

An Iranian delegation is expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday night, officials in Pakistan’s capital said. Ghalibaf and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will lead the delegation, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.

The Middle East war has killed thousands of people and damaged energy infrastructure across the oil-rich Persian Gulf in the past six weeks, while Iran’s ongoing shuttering of Hormuz has choked global fuel supplies. The strait — which handled about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war — remains a central sticking point.

Traffic through the strategic waterway has shown little sign of a meaningful pickup since the truce began, as shipowners await clarification of its status. A Russian-flagged supertanker passed through the strait late Thursday, ship-tracking data show, but that was a rare example.

The ongoing blockage has maintained pressure on oil prices. U.S. crude swung between losses and gains all session as traders unwound positions into the weekend to stay neutral ahead of the talks on Saturday. Prices settled below $97 a barrel.

Wall Street traders bracing for the talks left stocks wavering. An advance in equities faded after Trump’s comments to the New York Post about preparing for further military action.

Trump, who has warned Iran against charging fees on tankers, said Friday the U.S. would not permit Tehran to collect tolls to transit the strait. “Nobody knows if they’re doing that, but if they’re doing that, we’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said.

Despite the challenges, Trump has said he’s optimistic about a deal with Tehran, describing Iran’s leaders during an NBC News interview as “much more reasonable” than their public comments would suggest.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father was killed on the first day of the war, said in a statement on Telegram that Iran “will definitely bring the management of the Strait of Hormuz to a new stage,” though it was unclear whether he was referring to previous Iranian demands to retain control of the waterway that the U.S. has rejected.

Khamenei also reiterated that Iran wants war reparations, a likely nonstarter for U.S. negotiators.

The Israeli campaign in Lebanon remained one of the major hurdles to talks, with Trump telling NBC that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “going to low-key it” with airstrikes on Lebanon, after a major operation on Wednesday killed more than 200 people.

Iran has said the U.S. bears responsibility for halting fighting in Lebanon, which has killed more than 1,700 people, while American officials insist the country wasn’t part of the ceasefire accord.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter in a statement said his country agreed to formal peace negotiations starting Tuesday with the Lebanese government, though he said they refused to discuss any ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Netanyahu has reiterated his position that the ongoing attacks in Lebanon aren’t part of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal.

Hezbollah’s “resistance will continue until its last breath,” Secretary-General Naim Qasem said, according to Al-Manar TV.

The United States and Iran appeared to pause most strikes. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said fresh strikes were carried out by Iran and its proxies overnight on Thursday, with no further reports on Friday.

The war in the Middle East has claimed more than 5,500 lives, according to governments and nongovernmental agencies. More than 3,600 people have been killed in Iran, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates, while more than 1,700 people have died in Lebanon, the government says.

Israel said it’s killed more than 1,400 Hezbollah militants, including 200 on Wednesday.

Israel has reported about three dozen deaths, and a similar number have been killed across Gulf Arab nations, government reports show. There have also been several dozen casualties in Iraq. Thirteen American troops have been killed, according to U.S. Central Command.

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(With assistance from John Bowker, Esha Dey, Devika Krishna Kumar and Jordan Fabian.)

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