U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday there is a strong likelihood that negotiations aimed at ending the Iran conflict will resume soon, citing indications received by the United Nations.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran talks could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, according to an interview with the New York Post.
Asked what the United Nations knew about such prospects, Guterres told reporters at the U.N., "The indication we have is that it is highly probable that these talks will restart."
Guterres said he met on Tuesday with the deputy prime minister of Pakistan, and praised Pakistan's peace efforts.
"I consider it essential that these negotiations go on," Guterres said.
"I think it would be unrealistic to expect... such a complex problem, long-lasting problem, could be resolved in the first session of a negotiation. So we need negotiations to go on, and we need a ceasefire to persist as negotiations go on."
Trump was quoted as saying that "something could be happening over the next two days, and we're more inclined to go there," referring to Pakistan.
He said Pakistan's Army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was doing a "great job" on the talks.
Gulf, Pakistani and Iranian officials also said negotiating teams from the U.S. and Iran could return to Pakistan later this week, though one senior Iranian source said no date had been set.
While the U.S. blockade drew angry rhetoric from Tehran, signs that diplomatic engagement might continue helped calm oil markets, pushing benchmark prices below $100 on Tuesday.
The highest-level talks between the two adversaries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended in Islamabad without a breakthrough, raising doubts over the survival of a two-week ceasefire that still has a week to run. Among the slew of issues at stake were access to the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's nuclear programme and international sanctions on Tehran.
Since the United States and Israel began the war on February 28, Iran effectively shut the strait to nearly all vessels except its own, saying passage would be permitted only under Iranian control and subject to a fee. Nearly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies previously flowed through the narrow waterway, making the fallout from its closure widespread.
In a countermeasure, the U.S. military said it began blocking shipping traffic in and out of Iran's ports on Monday. Tehran has threatened to hit naval ships going through the strait and to retaliate against its Gulf neighbors’ ports.
