DUBAI/WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said the war he launched with Israel on Iran was close to over, as the army chief of mediator Pakistan arrived in Tehran to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict.
The diplomatic push came as U.S. and Iranian officials weighed a return to Pakistan for further talks after negotiations there ended on Sunday without a breakthrough.
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Israel expects a two-week ceasefire agreed last week with the Iranians to be extended, a source told Reuters.
Pakistan’s military confirmed Field Marshal Asim Munir had arrived in Tehran. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Munir, who had mediated the last round of talks, was heading to Iran “to narrow gaps” between the two sides.
“I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead,” Trump told ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, according to a post by the reporter on X, adding he did not think it would be necessary to extend the ceasefire.
“I think it’s close to over, yeah. I mean I view it as very close to over,” Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network conducted Tuesday and broadcast Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly.”
Officials from Pakistan, Iran and Gulf states also said both sides could return to Islamabad in coming days.
The talks last weekend broke down without an agreement to end the war, which Trump began alongside Israel on February 28, triggering Iranian attacks on Iran’s Gulf neighbours and reigniting a conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump’s optimism lifted global stocks towards record highs. Oil prices were slightly up at around $95 per barrel after the U.S. said its blockade of Iranian ports had halted seaborne trade in and out of Iran.
Finance ministers from almost a dozen countries led by Britain called on the U.S., Israel and Iran to implement their in full and said the conflict would weigh on the global economy and markets even if it was resolved soon.
TANKERS INTERCEPTED
During the first 48 hours of the U.S. blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports, no vessels have made it past U.S. forces, the U.S. military said. Additionally, nine vessels have complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and return toward an Iranian port or coastal area.
However, Iran’s Fars News agency said an Iranian supertanker subject to U.S. sanctions crossed the strait towards Iran’s Imam Khomeini port despite the blockade. Fars did not identify the tanker or give further details of its voyage.
