Iran talks still no closer

By Nathan Morley

Despite a cease-fire, there is no sign of progress in efforts to reach a broader peace agreement with Iran or resolve disputes over its nuclear program.

Negotiations remain stalled over Iran’s uranium enrichment and the status of the Strait of Hormuz, which is still largely closed to commercial traffic.

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President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran “wants to make a deal,” but added he was not satisfied with the latest proposal, without explaining why. Iran submitted its offer to Pakistani mediators on Thursday evening, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, which released no details.

Any eventual agreement is expected to include limits on Iran’s enrichment capabilities, a central issue since the United States launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 to curb what Washington said was a potential weapons program. Iran maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian purposes and denies seeking nuclear weapons.

The United States and Iran had been discussing a possible new nuclear arrangement since April 2025. The previous multilateral deal is widely viewed as defunct after the U.S. withdrawal in 2018 and Iran’s subsequent breaches beginning in 2019.

In regional developments, at least 13 people — including four women and a child — were killed in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has continued despite a three-week extension of a cease-fire.

An initial 10-day pause in hostilities was announced April 16 after ambassador-level talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon. 

The two countries, which have no diplomatic relations, had not held high-level discussions since 1993.