Unclear if U.S.-Iran peace talks will happen one day before Trump’s latest ultimatum expires

The Greek maritime risk management firm MARISKS has warned mariners in the Middle East of fraudulent messages being issued to shipping companies offering vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for cryptocurrency, according to the Reuters news agency.

After a brief reopening of the vital waterway, Iran reimposed restrictions on vessels transiting the strait in response to the U.S. naval blockade of its own ships and ports over the weekend. As of now, Iran demands that any commercial vessel seeking passage do so in direct coordination with its military authorities, and that it use a designated route that passes close to its Larak Island in the far north of the narrow strait.

MARISKS issued an alert to shipowners on Monday warning that unknown actors claiming to represent Iranian authorities were sending some shipping companies messages demanding fees payable in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for permission to transit the strait.

“These specific messages are a scam,” and not actually sent by Iranian authorities, the firm warned.

Reuters said there was no comment from Tehran about the messages, noting that hundreds of ships, with about 20,000 seafarers on board, remained stranded in the Gulf as of Tuesday. 

CBS News has seen the gridlock first-hand. Journalists are not meant to be on the waters of the strait, so correspondent Imtiaz Tyab and producer Sohel Uddin posed as tourists to get a short journey into the choked waterway on a pleasure boat. 

They saw dozens of cargo ships and tankers, all of which have sat idle for weeks, waiting and hoping for passage through the strait.

Iranian state TV on Tuesday rejected reports suggesting a lower-level preliminary delegation had arrived in Pakistan’s capital ahead of possible peace talks with Trump administration officials.

“Since Saturday, numerous reports have circulated about the ‘departure’ or ‘arrival’ of an Iranian delegation to Pakistan, and even announcements of the meeting time as ‘Monday afternoon’ or ‘Tuesday morning’ by international and regional media — all of which are inaccurate,” the state TV broadcast said.

The report then reiterated a remark by the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, who said Monday: “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats.”

“Continuing participation in the talks depends on a change in the behavior and positions of the Americans,” the state TV report said. 

President Trump said late Monday that obtaining uranium from Iran would be “long” and “difficult” in the aftermath of last year’s U.S. strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites.

“Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: “Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process.”

Mr. Trump regularly uses the term “nuclear dust” to refer to Iran’s stock of enriched uranium, which the United States accuses Iran of hoarding in order to use in a nuclear bomb. But he has also sometimes used it to refer to material left over from U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June last year.

Mr. Trump has said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium will ultimately be transferred to U.S. territory, despite Iran’s foreign ministry disputing any such plans.

Israeli officials say Tehran had stepped up efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon since the end of the 12-day war last June, which was launched by Israel and included U.S. bombings of three nuclear facilities, including an enrichment plant.  

Speaking on the John Fredericks radio show, President Trump predicted Monday that Iran will negotiate with the U.S., but “if they don’t, they’re going to see problems like they’ve never seen before.”

He also reiterated that he believes the Iran war is “very close to being over.”

Mr. Trump has said his Vice President JD Vance, senior envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to Pakistan for another possible round of U.S.-Iran peace talks, as a two-week ceasefire between the two countries is set to expire this week. It’s not clear whether Iran plans to send a delegation to Islamabad.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, cast further doubt on future negotiations with the U.S. on Monday, saying: “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats.”

“Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table — in his own imagination — into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering,” Ghalibaf said on X.

“In the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

Ghalibaf was among the Iranian officials who met with Vice President JD Vance, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this month for direct talks in Pakistan that did not result in a breakthrough.

In less than 48 hours this weekend, President Trump went from saying Iran has “agreed to everything,” including working with the U.S. to remove its enriched uranium, to warning that if Iran doesn’t sign a U.S.-backed deal, the “whole country is getting blown up.” 

The president’s rapid shifts in messaging, expressed in phone calls with individual reporters and on Truth Social, come as the two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran enters its final days, and as the state of negotiations with Iran is uncertain. 

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Only a day after threatening that Iran would be “getting blown up” unless the regime signed a U.S.-backed deal, the president on Monday said he’s in no rush to reach an agreement with Tehran. 

“The Democrats are doing everything possible to hurt the very strong position we are in with respect to Iran,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, noting that Democrats “like to say that I promised 6 weeks to defeat Iran.”

The president insisted that from a military standpoint, it was “far faster” than six weeks to defeat Iran. Still, he said, “I’m not going to let them rush the United States into making a deal that is not as good as it could have been.” 

“I read the Fake News saying that I am under ‘pressure’ to make a Deal,” he wrote. “THIS IS NOT TRUE! I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly! Time is not my adversary, the only thing that matters is that we finally, after 47 years, straighten out the MESS that other Presidents let happen because they didn’t have the Courage or Foresight to do what had to be done with respect to Iran.”