At a Turning Point USA event in Georgia on Tuesday, US vice-president JD Vance faced heckles from an audience member who appeared to be criticising the Trump administration for its stance on Gaza.
Vance, speaking at a tour stop at the University of Georgia, also leaned into Iran. He said Iran will “thrive” if it commits to not having a nuclear weapon, adding that Donald Trump “doesn’t want to make, like, a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain.” The vice-president said there is “a lot of mistrust between Washington and Tehran that cannot be resolved overnight,” but argued that Iranian negotiators wanted a deal and that he felt “very good about where we are.”
Talks to end the Iran war could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, Trump said on Tuesday after weekend negotiations collapsed and Washington imposed a blockade on Iranian ports. The fragile two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran still has a week to run, and Trump suggested he did not think it would be necessary to extend it beyond 21 April. “I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead,” he told an ABC reporter, while also saying “It could end either way,” but that “I think a deal is preferable because then they can rebuild … They really do have a different regime now. No matter what, we took out the radicals.”
Misryoum newsroom reported that the US military has said American forces have completely halted economic trade going in and out of Iran by sea through a blockade. According to Misryoum reporting, after talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough, Donald Trump declared a naval blockade on ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf to increase pressure on Iran’s economy. It is also being presented as a response to Iran’s near-total closure of the strait of Hormuz to ships using other Gulf ports.
The blockade has pushed fresh uncertainty onto shippers, oil companies and war risk insurers. On Wednesday morning, US central command (Centcom) said US forces had “achieved maritime superiority in the Middle East”. Misryoum editorial desk noted that an estimated 90% of Iran’s economy is fueled by international trade by sea, and that in less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea. In a place like a port office, it’s the kind of news that lands fast—paperwork pauses, phones keep ringing, and the air is all diesel and nerves.
Diplomatic movement also continued in parallel, even as the ceasefire window narrows. Misryoum newsroom reported that US secretary of state Marco Rubio described Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington on Tuesday as a “historic opportunity,” saying he hoped parties would begin to move forward. Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun expressed hope direct talks could mark “the beginning of the end of the suffering,” and warned that stability will not return to the south if Israel continues to occupy its lands. Lebanon’s top envoy to the US, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, said engagement with Israel was “constructive,” while urging an end to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants that has displaced thousands of Lebanese.
As pressure on Iran’s maritime channels grows, there are also signs the wider region is still trying to manage shipping access. The UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris on Friday focused on reopening the strait of Hormuz, Downing Street said, describing a coordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard international shipping once the conflict ends. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it targeted 13 northern Israeli towns with rockets shortly after Lebanese-Israeli talks began, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula and 11 other towns at 6.15pm.
Markets, at least temporarily, seemed to take the diplomatic engagement as a cushion: Misryoum newsroom reported that signs of engagement helped calm oil markets, pressing benchmark prices down for a second day on Wednesday, while Asian stocks rose and the safe-haven dollar stabilised after falling for a seventh straight session overnight. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the underlying US economy remains strong and growth could still exceed 3% or 3.5% this year, while the IMF cut growth forecasts for 2026 based on the war’s impact and warned that further escalation could trigger a global recession—Bessent casting those global cuts as an overreaction. Misryoum analysis indicates the next two days in Pakistan could matter more than the slogans, though… actually, it’s hard to say which part will hold: the talk, the blockade, or the ceasefire clock.
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