Iran is considering attending another round of peace talks with the Trump administration in Islamabad this week, even after Iran’s top diplomat accused the US delegation of sabotaging the previous round with maximalist demands and “shifting goal posts.”
The spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a press briefing on Monday that “no decision has been made” regarding Iranian attendance at another round of talks. The earlier talks in Pakistan’s capital failed to produce a deal to end the conflict that the Trump administration and its Israeli counterparts launched in late February.
“While claiming diplomacy and readiness for negotiations, the US is carrying out behaviors that do not in any way indicate seriousness in pursuing a diplomatic process,” Baghaei told reporters, pointing to the US military’s attack on and seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman over the weekend.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday criticized what he called “unconstructive and contradictory signals” by US officials.
“Honoring commitments is the basis of meaningful dialogue,” Pezeshkian wrote in a social media post, adding that Iranians harbor “deep historical mistrust” toward the US government given its record of aggression against the Middle Eastern country.
“They seek Iran’s surrender,” Pezeshkian wrote of Trump administration officials. “Iranians do not submit to force.”
The Iranian president’s comments came as his US counterpart, President Donald Trump, threatened to continue the bombing campaign that has so far killed more than 3,300 Iranians – and displaced millions – if the current two-week ceasefire expires Wednesday evening without an agreement to end the war.
“Lots of bombs start going off,” Trump told PBS News when asked what happens if the ceasefire lapses without a deal.
Trump’s remarks came after he warned that if Iranian leaders don’t accept his administration’s terms for an end to the war, “the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”
Experts have said Trump’s threats are themselves war crimes even if he doesn’t follow through with the attacks on civilian infrastructure, which is protected under international law.
Trump administration split on gasoline prices
Also on Monday, Trump said his own energy secretary, former fracking executive Chris Wright, was incorrect when he said gasgas prices may not get below $3 per gallon until next year.
In a Sunday interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Wright was asked when Americans could expect to see gas prices fall significantly after they spiked to over $4 per gallon on average nationwide because of Trump’s war with Iran.
“I don’t know,” Wright responded. “That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year.”
In an interview with The Hill on Monday, Trump said Wright was “totally wrong” about the projection, and insisted that gas prices would plummet “as soon as” the war ends.
Despite Trump’s claims that gas prices will come down rapidly after the end of the war, The New York Times reported on Monday that the negative effects of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked off roughly 20% of global petroleum shipments, is just starting to be felt.
The impact of the strait’s closure is being felt most acutely in East Asia, where oil supply shortages are having a ripple effect that is likely to spread throughout the world if the strait remains closed for much longer.
“Even if there is a peace deal soon,” the Times reported, “the future … will likely include months of canceled flights, surging food prices, factory pauses, delayed shipments and empty shelves for products long considered quick and easy to buy worldwide: plastic bags, instant noodles, vaccines, syringes, lipstick, microchips and sportswear.”
The Times added that “even if the Strait of Hormuz stabilizes tomorrow, it could take years for oil and gas output and shipping to reach fat prewar levels.”
Bob McNally, founder and president of the consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, echoed the Times’s analysis in an interview with Newsweek published on Monday.
“It is likely we will feel the effects of energy disruptions through the end of the year,” McNally explained. “Even if the conflict and disruptions were to end today, the ripple effects would be felt for many months. Just restarting Gulf production and flows would take three to four months. Repairing damage to facilities could take longer.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, also projected more financial pain for US consumers in the months ahead.
“It doesn’t look like gasoline prices will return to pre-war levels anytime soon,” Zandi wrote in a Sunday social media post. “That’s even if the war ends soon, which looks iffy, to say the least. And this abstracts from what Americans will need to shell out for higher prices on everything from groceries to airfares in the coming weeks and months. The financial pain caused by the war and its fallout on consumer spending and the economy is set to intensify.”