Published: 12:22 AM, 20 April 2026
US delegation heading to Pakistan for talks with Iran: Trump
US President Donald Trump - EPA
US President Donald Trump has said that a delegation from his country is heading to Pakistan for talks with Iran.
Vice President JD Vance and other top US officials will hold another round of peace talks with Iran in the coming days, according to the White House. A delegation from Tehran will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday and work toward announcing a ceasefire extension with the US the following day, Iranian sources said.
Donald Trump has accused Iran of violating the ceasefire with its actions in the vital waterway and warned that US strikes will resume if a peace deal can't be reached. Tehran has once again blocked the passage of most ships through the strait, alleging US "breaches of trust."
Trump's threat to blow up electricity plants and bridges in Iran could amount to a threat to commit potential war crimes, according to international treaties and conventions on the laws of war.
The deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure could have a devastating effect on civilian life - even if the plants are also argued to have a military or government purpose.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) - to which neither the US nor Iran are party - told me earlier this month when Trump made similar threats that bombing of Iranian power plants, as well as attacks by both Iran and Israel on energy infrastructure, would not amount to legitimate targets.
Under the Rome Statute, established by the court, "intentionally directing attacks at civilian objects... which are not military objectives" is a war crime, Moreno Ocampo said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about this issue of potential war crimes and rejected the notion.
"Of course, this administration and the United States armed forces will always act within the confines of the law.
"But with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated. And he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration."
Trump himself said in newspaper interview earlier this year he didn't "need" international law and that he was limited only by his own morality. "My own mind," he said, was "the only thing that can stop me".
IRAN'S NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT REMAINS A STICKING POINT IN TALKS:
Iran wants sanctions lifted. Its economy is in dire straits and it is in an even worse condition now that it can't get its exports out from its ports in the Gulf.
The highly-enriched uranium still sitting in tunnels down below the mountains of Isfahan, where the US bombed last year
There has been lots of fanciful talk about sending in a special US military operation to try and get it out, but forget about that. Iran would surround the place with troops.
You cannot do that without its permission. It's going to be a very delicate operation to get down into the bombed out tunnels.
The United Nations' nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency - is prepared to do that but not under fire. It may be a joint mission with the US but only when Iran agrees.
TRAFFIC IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ REMAINS AT STANDSTILL:
A snapshot of the Marine Traffic
website taken just before 12:00 GMT (13:00 BST) shows no traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
About 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually passes through the strait, but the number of ships transporting this has dramatically decreased during the recent hostilities in the Middle East.
On Friday Iran's foreign minister said the Strait of Hormuz had reopened for commercial vessels, but this decision was reversed a day later.
Iran now says the strait will remain closed until the US ends its blockade on Iranian ports.
