Calls for diplomacy grow amid Hormuz blockade

Diplomatic efforts gained momentum on Tuesday toward a second round of high-level negotiations between the United States and Iran — even as the US imposed a bilateral naval blockade on Iranian ports, a move Tehran condemned as "piracy".

Despite the collapse of talks between the two adversaries on Sunday, US Vice-President JD Vance, who led the US delegation, told Fox News on Monday the US "made a lot of progress" by communicating to Tehran where the US "could make some accommodation".

"I really think the ball is in the Iranian court, because we put a lot on the table," Vance said, as a second US official confirmed ongoing efforts to salvage a diplomatic agreement.

The developments come as the US blockade took effect on Monday, with Iran issuing a retaliation threat that has set up a new standoff — posing severe risks to the global economy and raising the specter of a ceasefire collapse and resumed full-scale hostilities.

Demand for crude oil will likely see the biggest slump in the second quarter since the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the global economy in 2020, the International Energy Agency warned Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the US aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is sailing via the African coast toward the Arabian Sea, avoiding the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to USNI News, a news service of the US Naval Institute. The route bypasses the shortcut waterways where Yemen's Houthi movement launched drone and missile attacks on US vessels in 2024 and 2025.

An Iranian military spokesman said any US restrictions on international shipping are "illegal and constitute piracy", warning that if Iranian ports came under threat, no port in the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Oman would remain secure.

US President Donald Trump has insisted that any final deal must include ending Iran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon, while Iran has reaffirmed that its nuclear program is exclusively for civilian purposes.

"I can tell you that we've been called by the other side. They'd like to make a deal. Very badly, very badly," Trump told reporters outside the Oval Office.

During weekend negotiations in Islamabad, the US reportedly pressed for a 20-year suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program, media reports said on Monday. Iran, in turn, proposed a five-year freeze on its nuclear activities — a proposal US officials rejected, The New York Times reported.

Diplomatic efforts were also stepping up elsewhere, with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif saying on Monday that "all-out efforts are underway" to reach a deal to halt the fighting and that the ceasefire was "holding".

Several sources confirmed on Tuesday that officials from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad this week, days after their highest-level talks since 1979 ended without a breakthrough.

"Efforts are underway to bring both parties back to the negotiating table. Of course, we want them back in Islamabad, but the venue and date are not yet final," one anonymous source told French news agency AFP.

Mohamad Elmasry, professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said both the US and Iran appear to want an "off-ramp from the war" but need a "face-saving" way to exit.

"This war has been extremely costly for the parties involved and far beyond," he told Al Jazeera.

"Iran has greater leverage than it did at the start of the war, but I have no doubt they would seek an end to hostilities."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier said that Tehran "will only continue negotiations within the framework of international law", state TV IRIB reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia's offer to take Iran's enriched uranium as part of a potential US-Iran deal remains on the table.

"The offer still stands, but it has not yet been acted upon," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem urged Lebanon to call off a planned meeting with Israel in Washington on Tuesday, reiterating the group's rejection of direct negotiations with its foe — as Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon since late February.