Camille Naredo

US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up upon arrival at Miami International Airport in Miami, on April 11, 2026. Jim Watson, AFP

US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up upon arrival at Miami International Airport in Miami, on April 11, 2026. Trump is traveling to Florida to attend a UFC event and spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago residence. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

Article (news)

Donald Trump

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1776616725523AFP__20260411__A7HD7EZ__v2__MidRes__TopshotUsPoliticsTrump.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up upon arrival at Miami International Airport in Miami, on April 11, 2026. Jim Watson, AFP" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up upon arrival at Miami International Airport in Miami, on April 11, 2026. <em>Jim Watson, AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump said he was sending a delegation to Pakistan on Monday for negotiations with Iran, while renewing his threats to destroy the country&#x27;s vital infrastructure if it didn&#x27;t agree to a deal.</p><p>&quot;NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!&quot; the American leader declared on Sunday in a post on his Truth Social account, saying that without a deal, Washington was &quot;going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran&quot;.</p><p>Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are three days away from the end of a two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war started by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.</p><p>There has so far been only a single, 21-hour negotiating session held in Islamabad on April 11 that ended inconclusively, though groundwork for fresh talks continued afterwards.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it,&quot; Trump said in his post.</p><p>No date has yet been announced for a second round of talks, and Iran&#x27;s speaker of parliament and senior negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf insisted on Saturday night that the two sides were &quot;still far from the final discussion&quot;.</p><p>Trump justified the war as an attempt to stop Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons -- an ambition it has always denied -- and the atomic issue remains a key sticking point in negotiations.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/4/19/iran-says-final-deal-still-far-off-as-hormuz-strait-shuttered-1708">READ: Iran says final deal still far off as Hormuz Strait shuttered</a></div><p>Iran and the US had already been discussing Tehran&#x27;s nuclear program in Omani-mediated talks when Washington launched the war, which has now added a fresh point of contention -- the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for oil and gas shipments that Iran has ordered closed.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Heightened security -</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jft9dvOyMzI?autoplay=1&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>In Islamabad, security had been visibly stepped up on Sunday ahead of the expected talks.</p><p>Authorities announced road closures and traffic restrictions across the city, as well as in neighboring Rawalpindi.</p><p>AFP journalists saw armed guards and checkpoints near Islamabad&#x27;s most secure hotels -- the Marriott and the Serena.</p><p>&quot;Citizens are earnestly requested to cooperate with the security agencies,&quot; a city official posted on X.</p><p>The US president said his negotiators, whom he didn&#x27;t name, would arrive in the Pakistani capital on Monday evening.</p><p>The previous delegation was led by Vice President JD Vance and included Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who led the aborted pre-war talks.</p><p>A major sticking point of negotiations has been Iran&#x27;s stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/4/17/trump-says-iran-agrees-to-hand-over-its-enriched-uranium-0815">READ: Trump says Iran agrees to hand over its enriched uranium</a></div><p>Trump said on Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over its roughly 440 kilograms of enriched uranium. &quot;We&#x27;re going to get it by going in with Iran, with lots of excavators,&quot; he said.</p><p>But Iran&#x27;s foreign ministry has said the stockpile, thought to be buried deep under rubble from US bombing in last June&#x27;s 12-day war, was &quot;not going to be transferred anywhere&quot;, and surrendering it &quot;to the US has never been raised in negotiations&quot;.</p><p>On Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian questioned why Iran should give up its &quot;legal right&quot; to a nuclear program.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Hormuz closed again -</strong></div><p>Tehran moved to close off the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world&#x27;s oil and liquefied natural gas travel in peacetime, at the start of the war, hammering the global economy and roiling markets.</p><p>Having failed to force it open again, Trump countered with a US naval blockade on Iranian ports in an attempt to cut off Tehran&#x27;s oil revenues.</p><p>Iran briefly reopened the strait on Friday in recognition of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again the following day in response to the US maintaining its blockade.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/4/18/iran-threatens-to-again-close-hormuz-if-us-blockade-continues-1447">READ: Iran closes Hormuz Strait again over US blockade with ships mid-transit</a></div><p>Iran&#x27;s Revolutionary Guards warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission &quot;will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted&quot;.</p><p>&quot;If America does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be limited,&quot; Ghalibaf said.</p><p>Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Sunday said the blockade was &quot;a violation&quot; of the ceasefire&quot; and illegal collective punishment of the Iranian people.</p><p>A handful of oil and gas tankers had crossed the strait early on Saturday during the brief reopening, but by early Sunday morning tracking data showed the waterway empty of shipping.</p><p>The afternoon before, a trio of incidents demonstrated the dangers of any attempted crossing.</p><p>A UK maritime security agency said the Revolutionary Guards fired at one tanker, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported the force had threatened to &quot;destroy&quot; an empty cruise ship that was fleeing the Gulf.</p><p>In the third incident, the UK agency said it received a report of a vessel &quot;being hit by an unknown projectile, which caused damage&quot; to shipping containers but no fire.</p><p>Trump said of the incidents: &quot;That wasn&#x27;t nice, was it?&quot;</p>

<p>US President Donald Trump said he was sending a delegation to Pakistan on Monday for negotiations with Iran, while renewing his threats to destroy the country's vital infrastructure if it didn't agree to a deal.</p>

US President Donald Trump said he was sending a delegation to Pakistan on Monday for negotiations with Iran, while renewing his threats to destroy the country's vital infrastructure if it didn't agree to a deal.

Trump again threatens Iran infrastructure as he orders negotiators to Pakistan

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Trump again threatens Iran infrastructure as he orders negotiators to Pakistan

AFP teams in Washington,

Tehran and Islamabad

Published April 20, 2026 01:04 AM PHT

|

Updated April 20, 2026 01:21 AM PHT

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Israel

United States

Iran

Pakistan

Donald Trump

Middle East

conflict

war

ceasefire

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