The United States and Iran have issued mutual threats on Monday, April 20, 2026, just two days before the end of the two-week ceasefire, while uncertainty surrounds a possible resumption of talks between the two countries in Pakistan.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump accused Iran of having “violated the ceasefire multiple times” in a post on his Truth Social network, as the possibility of a new round of negotiations in Islamabad remained uncertain. There was no confirmation from the US side that President J.D. Vance would go to Pakistan. On the Iranian side, state television indicated that “no delegation” was going there, specifying that Tehran was waiting for a “change in behavior” from the United States.
As the end of the ceasefire approaches, which came into effect on April 8 after more than a month of war that caused thousands of deaths in the Middle East and shook the global economy, Donald Trump revisited a major point of contention: the Iranian nuclear issue.
“Operation Midnight Hammer” (the US strikes in June 2025) “led to the complete and total annihilation of nuclear dust sites” (enriched uranium stockpiles) in Iran. “That’s why unearthing it will be a long and difficult process,” wrote the US president on Truth Social. He had promised on Friday that Iranian uranium would be returned to the US “soon,” stating that Iran had agreed to return it. Tehran denied this once again on Monday, denying any intention to acquire atomic weapons and defending its right to civilian nuclear power.
This adjustment from Donald Trump comes shortly after he assured Bloomberg that the ultimatum for the ceasefire between the two belligerents would expire “Wednesday evening, Washington time,” and that its extension was “highly unlikely.” The ceasefire was theoretically set to end Tuesday night into Wednesday, Tehran time. “We do not negotiate under threat, and over the past two weeks, we have been preparing to play new cards on the ground,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the president of the Islamic Republic Parliament, on Tuesday.
“If US demands are not met before the end of the ceasefire, ‘many bombs will explode,'” warned Donald Trump on PBS. “The DEAL we make with Iran will be MUCH BETTER than the nuclear deal” […]”the Iran nuclear deal”†concluded in 2015, asserted Donald Trump on Truth Social. However, he reiterated that he intended to maintain the blockade on Iranian ports “until there is a DEAL” with Tehran, stating that it is costing Iran “500 million dollars per day, a figure that is unsustainable for them, especially in the short term.”
At least twenty-six ships from the Iranian ghost fleet have evaded the American blockade since its establishment last week, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
“In Tehran, where the main airports reopened on Monday, life has resumed its course, with crowded cafes, athletes, and walkers in the parks. But fatalism and exhaustion seem to prevail among the people,” said a Paris-based AFP team.
“Regardless of what happens, the losers are the Iranian people,” said a 30-year-old biologist who chose to remain anonymous for security reasons. Saghar, 39, painted a “terrible” picture of the country, citing thousands of deaths in Israeli-American strikes: “There is no light at the end of the tunnel. The economic situation is horrendous. They (the regime) arrest people for no reason. Executions are increasing.”
De nouvelles discussions entre le Liban et Israël à Washington, jeudi
On the Lebanese front, new direct discussions between Israel and Lebanon will take place on Thursday in Washington, announced the American diplomacy.
A fragile ten-day ceasefire came into effect last Friday between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, whom both parties accused of violating.
The fifteen members of the UN Security Council condemned the attack that killed a French peacekeeper in Lebanon on Saturday, calling for the responsible parties to “be brought to justice promptly.” French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN are pointing fingers at Hezbollah.
A new official report stated 2,387 deaths in six weeks of war with Israel.
