Iran War: 1)Iran’s supreme leader says it will protect its nuclear and missile capabilities; 2)Talks stumble as Iran’s top diplomat leaves Pakistan and Trump says he told envoys not to go

1)Iran’s supreme leader says it will protect its nuclear and missile capabilities

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Jon Gambrell, April 30, 2026

A woman holds up pictures of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, left, and his father, the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a state-organized rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims’ Imam, and supporting the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran’s supreme leader said Thursday that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, likely seeking to draw a hard line as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks a wider deal to cement the shaky ceasefire now holding in the war.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, speaking in a written statement read by a state television anchor as he has since taking over as Iran’s supreme leader, struck a defiant tone, insisting the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters” and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region’s history.

However, his remarks come as Iran’s oil industry has begun to be squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its oil tankers from getting out to sea. Meanwhile, benchmark Brent crude for June delivery reached as much as $126 a barrel in trading on Thursday as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes.

All this is putting additional pressure on the world’s economy as Trump likely weighs how to respond.

“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei said in the statement, read like all others since he reportedly was wounded in the Feb. 28 attack that killed his father, the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“We and our neighbours across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometres away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it — except at the bottom of its waters.”

Ceasefire shaken as Strait choked off

With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.

A recent Iranian proposal would push negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has long maintained its program is peaceful, though it enriched uranium at near-weapons-grade levels of 60%.

Speaking to mark Persian Gulf Day in Iran, Khamenei’s remarks signalled that nuclear issues and Iran’s ballistic missile program wouldn’t be traded away.

“Ninety million proud and honourable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities — from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities — as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said.

He referred to America as the “Great Satan,” a long hurled insult by Iranian leaders toward the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Khamenei signals Strait will remain shut

In his remarks, Khamenei seemed to signal Iran would maintain its control over the waterway, which sits in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Iran had been charging some ships reportedly $2 million apiece to travel through the strait.

“Islamic Iran, by giving practical thanks for the blessing of exercising control over the Strait of Hormuz, will make the Persian Gulf region secure and put an end to the hostile enemy’s abuses of this waterway,” Khamenei said. “The legal rules and new management of the Strait of Hormuz will bring comfort and progress for the benefit of all the region’s nations, and its economic gains will gladden the hearts of the people.”

However, the world considered the strait an international waterway, open to all without paying tolls. Gulf Arab nations, chief among them the United Arab Emirates, have decried Iran’s control of the strait as akin to piracy.

2)Talks stumble as Iran’s top diplomat leaves Pakistan and Trump says he told envoys not to go

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Munir Ahmed, Samy Magdy And Jon Gambrell, April 25, 2026

The latest ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appeared to fail Saturday before they began, as Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and President Donald Trump soon afterward said he had told envoys not to travel to Islamabad.

The negotiations were meant to follow historic face-to-face talks earlier this month between the U.S., led by Vice President JD Vance, and Iran, led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. But Iranian officials have questioned how they can trust the U.S. after its forces started blockading Iranian ports in response to Iran’s war grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

In announcing his decision Saturday, Trump said on social media: “If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” The White House had said Friday that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would be going to Islamabad.

“Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” Trump added.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday evening, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

“Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,” Araghchi later said on social media.

Iran had said any talks would be indirect

Araghchi met with Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about what he called Iran’s red lines for negotiations. He said Tehran would engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved.”

The open-ended ceasefire has paused most fighting, but the economic fallout grows with global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Both sides have continued to make military threats. Iran’s joint military command on Saturday warned that “if the U.S. continues its aggressive military actions, including naval blockades, banditry, and piracy” it will face a “strong response.”

Pakistan has been trying to get the U.S. and Iran back to the table since Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire, honoring Islamabad’s request for more diplomatic outreach.

Even before Saturday’s developments, Iran’s foreign ministry said any talks would be indirect and that Pakistani officials would convey messages. Tehran noted that indirect talks with the U.S. last year and early this year over Tehran’s nuclear program, the issue long at the heart of tensions, ended with it being attacked by the U.S. and Israel, adding to its wariness.

The first round of talks in Pakistan lasted over 20 hours, the highest-level direct talks between the longtime adversaries since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Araghchi and Trump’s envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on Feb. 27 but walked away without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started the war.

The standoff around the strait continues

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is still nearly 50% higher than when the war began because of Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.

Iran attacked three ships this week, while the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Saturday his country was sending minesweeper ships to the Mediterranean to help remove Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities end.

Also Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s international airport for the first time since the war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes two months ago. Flights were scheduled to depart for Istanbul, Oman’s capital of Muscat and the Saudi city of Medina, according to Iran’s state-run television.

A growing toll even as ceasefires hold

Since the war began, authorities say at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,496 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the Iran war started.

Additionally, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six members of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon have been killed.

Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

___Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; and Will Weissert in Washington contributed.