US eyes potential second round of in-person talks with Iran as blockade takes hold

By Kevin Liptak, Alayna Treene, Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — Marathon talks that failed to produce a breakthrough between the United States and Iran were not the final word in negotiations, officials in the US and the region said Monday.

And President Donald Trump remains open to resuming in-person negotiations soon if he believes Tehran is ready to submit to his demands, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump officials are internally discussing details for a potential second, in-person meeting with Iranian officials before a ceasefire expires on April 21, a source familiar with the talks told CNN, though it’s unclear whether such a meeting would materialize.

Officials are looking at potential dates and locations should ongoing talks with Iran and mediators in the region progress in the coming days, the source said, describing the discussions as preliminary. “We need to be prepared to stand something up quickly should things head in that direction,” the source said.

But given previous Iranian resistance to a number of US demands, it is not clear Tehran would submit to Trump’s terms anytime soon, even as the US began a blockade of Iranian ports Monday morning. Both sides have proposed a suspension in Iranian uranium enrichment, but so far cannot settle on a mutually agreeable timespan for the moratorium, officials said.

And with the Strait of Hormuz still effectively closed, Iran believes it enjoys substantial leverage over the US, a position that was clear to negotiators in Islamabad this weekend.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance hold a different view: After weeks of war, Iran is badly weakened and would be wise to accept all of their demands. From their standpoint, the blockade is another pressure tactic — one intended to increase the temperature on Iran to return to talks in a more conciliatory fashion, officials said.

Trump said Monday that Iran had called the administration earlier that morning and that “they’d like to make a deal very badly.” He didn’t specify who had placed the call, or who in Washington had received it. Just a day earlier, he’d said he didn’t care whether a deal was struck.

The blockade has also injected fresh uncertainty into the situation — it remains unclear, for example, how far the US is willing to go militarily to enforce it and how Iran might react in the coming days and weeks.

Administration officials remain hopeful a diplomatic off-ramp is achievable, people familiar with the talks said. Depending on the pace of negotiations in the coming days, the US and Iran could also extend the ceasefire deadline to allow for more time, they said.

“There is continued engagement between the US and Iran and forward motion on trying to get an agreement,” a US official said.

A regional source told CNN there could be another round of negotiations and that Turkey is working to bridge the gaps between the two sides. Saturday’s 21-hour meeting in Islamabad was the culmination of weeks of negotiations with top-ranking US officials and intermediaries including Pakistan, but also Turkey, Egypt and Oman, among others.

Several locations for Saturday’s negotiations had been floated before all parties agreed on Islamabad, including Geneva, Vienna and Istanbul. Geneva and Islamabad are again on the table as potential options for another round, the source familiar with the talks said.

Sticking points in negotiations

Despite Saturday’s session lasting longer than expected, according to sources familiar with the talks, administration officials argue that one meeting was always unlikely to achieve a final agreement. Rather, officials had anticipated last weekend’s talks would likely be one of many negotiations over the course of the two-week ceasefire.

And Trump, as well as many of his closest advisers, is eager for the ceasefire to succeed and for the two sides to reach a diplomatic solution, the sources said. There is little appetite among many administration officials to see military attacks resume, with many acknowledging Americans are also growing impatient with the war.

Vance, as he was departing Islamabad early Sunday, said he’d placed a “best and final” offer on the table, suggesting there was still time for Iran to accept all the US conditions.

On Monday, he said the ball is in Iran’s court.

“They moved in our direction,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier, “but they didn’t move far enough.”

He added: “There really is, I think, a grand deal to be had here, but it’s up to the Iranians, I think, to take the next step.”

But many of the “red lines” the US has set for Iran are terms Tehran has previously rejected.

According to a White House official, the non-negotiable parameters include Iran ending all of its uranium enrichment; dismantling its major nuclear enrichment facilities, which were badly damaged during a US bombing run in June; and retrieving the more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium believed to be buried underground.

The nuclear disagreement appears unchanged from before the war began. It was Iran’s refusal to give up enrichment and hand over the 400 kilograms of near-bomb grade uranium that caused an earlier round of negotiations, led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to stall.

In Islamabad on Saturday, the American negotiators proposed Iran accept a 20-year pause in enriching uranium, a source familiar with the discussions said.

Trump has previously claimed the US and Iran would work together to remove what he calls the “nuclear dust,” though Iran appeared unmoved.

It wasn’t clear whether a previous proposal, wherein the US would provide Iran with nuclear fuel for a decade in exchange for Tehran halting all enrichment, was still on the table.

While Saturday’s negotiations were tough at moments, the two sides did develop a measure of respect for one another after spending hours behind closed doors, according to Trump and other people familiar with the talks.

Vance said on Monday that the Iranian negotiating team in Pakistan had not been in position to “cut a deal” and that they had to return to Tehran to get approval — suggesting that’s why the US eventually left Islamabad.

According to Iran’s foreign minister, the meetings appeared to proceed fruitfully until the final moments.

“In intensive talks at highest level in 47 years, Iran engaged with U.S in good faith to end war,” Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. “But when just inches away from ‘Islamabad MoU’, we encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade.”

Why Trump turned to a blockade

The US naval blockade underscores how reopening the Strait of Hormuz has rapidly become a top objective of the war as it became increasingly clear to US officials that Iran was both willing and able to endure weeks of shelling to maintain its grip on the waterway.

But it’s a move that also poses new risks for the US Navy, which is confronting the asymmetric threats of Iranian speed boats, drones and mines in the contested waterway. Trump officials had previously put off taking such a dramatic step in hopes of finding alternate ways that might boost the flow of oil through the strait and keep energy prices down — including offering to reinsure tankers, floating the prospect of naval escorts, and even lifting certain sanctions on Iran’s own oil sales.

Yet with the Iranian regime consolidating power and signaling plans to impose a permanent tolling system that would keep it in control of the shipping lane, US officials in the last couple weeks began more serious planning to cut off Iran’s key source of income, a person familiar with the internal discussions said.

The blockade represents perhaps the best of Trump’s dwindling options to loosen Iran’s grip on the strait, said energy analysts who see it as far less risky than a ground invasion and more likely to succeed than continuing the US’ bombing campaign.

The regime can likely withstand the economic pressure for at least the next three to four weeks before the pain gets significant, said Gregory Brew, a senior analyst on Iran and the energy sector at Eurasia Group.

But it could take even longer due to the US lifting sanctions on Iranian oil weeks ago, when Trump was more focused on boosting global oil supplies than on retaking control of the strait. The prior leniency allowed Iran to ship out millions more barrels to other countries suddenly permitted to buy its oil outright, giving it more of a financial cushion to withstand the blockade.

“They already have oil on the water,” Brew said. “That suggests they could withstand a blockade for a little while.”

In meantime, the blockade will likely test the White House’s ability to manage even higher gas prices. The stoppage of Iranian oil exports means what little had been getting out of the strait will be completely cut off, further worsening the global energy supply crunch — and driving already expensive US gas prices even higher.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.