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Washington has not yet formally agreed to extend the current ceasefire with Iran, though efforts to prolong the truce remain ongoing, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
“The United States has not formally agreed to an extension of the ceasefire. There is continued engagement between the U.S. and Iran to reach a deal,” the official told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
The current two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan on April 8, is set to expire April 22.
U.S. and Iranian officials held talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, over the weekend in an effort to permanently end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began Feb. 28, but the negotiations ended without agreement.
Iran said Wednesday that contacts with Washington had continued through Pakistani mediation since the talks collapsed.
“Since Sunday, when the Iranian delegation returned to Tehran, several messages have been exchanged through Pakistan,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said during a weekly press briefing.
“Today, we are very likely to receive a Pakistani delegation as a continuation of the discussions in Islamabad,” he added.
The weekend negotiations, which lasted around 21 hours, were led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
While neither side officially disclosed the main sticking points, President Donald Trump later criticized Iran for not reopening the Strait of Hormuz and for refusing to concede on its nuclear program.
Media reports said Washington sought a 20-year suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment, while Tehran proposed a five-year suspension of nuclear activity—an offer reportedly rejected by U.S. officials.
Baqaei said some U.S. demands in the talks were “unreasonable and unrealistic.”
He reiterated Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy, saying it could not be “taken away under pressure or through war.”
“The level of enrichment remains negotiable,” he said, adding that Iran “should be able to continue enrichment in accordance with its needs.”
Baqaei also criticized the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports imposed since Monday, saying it “will not succeed.”
He added that Iran “will not enter into any negotiations just to accept the American conditions.”
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