Iran President says diplomacy key, Pakan tells Trump US blockade hurdle to talks | World News
2 min readApr 20, 2026 06:21 PM As the US-Israel Iran war continued for about two months, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions with the U.S., but added that vigilance and drust in interactions with Washington were an “undeniable necessity”.
Pezeshkian also said the US blockade showed that Washington was moving toward “repeating previous patterns and betraying diplomacy”, according to state TV.
The two-week ceasefire between Iran and the US is set to expire on Wednesday, with US representatives set to reach Islamabad for Iran negotiations on Monday.Iranian Foreign Minry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei was quoted as saying Tasnim news that Pakan is currently the only official mediator in the diplomatic process and added that Tehran is not intending to take part in negotiations so far.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump told Pakan’s army chief Asim Munir that he would consider Munir’s advice on the US blockade of Iran’s ports being a hurdle to peace talks with Iran when the two spoke phone, a Pakani security source told Reuters.
Both US and Iran continued to be at loggerheads over the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran tightened control over maritime transit. In retaliation, US continued to blockade Iranian ports and recently took control over a vessel trying to get past the American blockade.
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