Sawt Falasteen - US optimistic about reaching peace deal with Iran

A Pakistani delegation arrived in Tehran meanwhile bearing a new message from Washington after US President Donald Trump indicated negotiations could resume this week following last weekend's abortive talks in Islamabad.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters further talks "would very likely" be in the Pakistani capital. "Those discussions are being had," Leavitt said, and "we feel good about the prospects of a deal."

US Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of talks, has said Iran is being offered a "grand bargain" to end the six-week war with Israel and the United States and address the decades-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel and the United States have "identical" goals -- enriched material removed from Iran, elimination of enrichment capability and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait, through which one-fifth of the world's crude oil normally flows, has been choked by Iranian forces since the US-Israeli offensive began and is now the focus of the US blockade.

On the economic front, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned of "tough times ahead" for the global economy if the war in the Middle East is unresolved and oil prices stay high, adding that inflation risks could seep into food prices.

Optimism about an accord in the US-Iran conflict sent share prices higher on Wall Street, however, with the major stock indices finishing at records on Wednesday while crude prices dropped.

- 'Zero ships have broken through' -

Washington has sought to turn the screws on Tehran with a blockade of its ports, with US Central Command claiming to have "completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea."

CENTCOM said it has turned back 10 vessels that tried to sail out of Iranian ports during the first 48 hours of the blockade and "zero ships have broken through."

The picture based on recent maritime tracking data in the Strait of Hormuz was less clear-cut, and Iran's Tasnim news agency reported shipping has continued from southern Iran.

The head of Iran's military central command center warned that a US failure to lift the blockade would constitute "a prelude" to violating the two-week ceasefire struck on April 8.

Unless Washington relents, Iran's armed forces "will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea," Ali Abdollahi said.

The military adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned that Iran would sink American ships in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States decides to "police" the key shipping channel.

"These ships of yours will be sunk by our first missiles," Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander-in-chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who was named as a military adviser by Khamenei last month, told state TV.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi welcomed a Pakistani delegation on Wednesday led by army chief Asim Munir that Iranian state television said was to relay a new US message and discuss a second round of talks.

- No nuclear weapons -

Trump has insisted that any deal with Iran must permanently bar the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

He launched the war on February 28, claiming that Tehran was rushing to complete an atomic bomb, an assertion not backed by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Washington has reportedly sought a 20-year suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program while Tehran has proposed suspending nuclear activity for five years -- an offer US officials rejected.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes and its foreign ministry said Wednesday that Iran's right to enrich uranium was "indisputable" although the level of enrichment was "negotiable."

The latest signals on US-Iran talks came as Israel and Lebanon agreed to open direct negotiations after their first high-level face-to-face meeting since 1993 took place on Tuesday in Washington.

Netanyahu on Wednesday spoke of two central objectives in the talks with Lebanon: "First, the dismantling of Hezbollah; second, a sustainable peace...achieved through strength."

The Trump administration is pressing for an end to the conflict between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, fearing it could jeopardize a broader settlement.

But the diplomatic push remained fragile as Hezbollah, which is hostile to any talks, fired dozens of rockets at Israel and the Israeli military claimed hits on more than 200 targets linked to the militant group in Lebanon over a 24-hour period.

burs/cl/jgc

T.Samara--SF-PST