Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
NY Times
Apr 21, 2026
Iran War Live Updates: Uncertainty Surrounds U.S.-Iran Talks as Cease-Fire Nears End
Vice President JD Vance was set to return to Pakistan for peace talks, U.S. officials said, though Iran has not confirmed that its negotiators will attend.
by Elian PeltierTyler PagerFarnaz FassihiErika Solomon and Aurelien Breeden
Here’s the latest
Uncertainty clouded prospects for a new round of U.S.-Iran peace talks on Tuesday, ahead of the scheduled end of a two-week cease-fire between the two countries, as Tehran denounced American threats and the seizure of an Iranian cargo ship.
Vice President JD Vance was expected to leave for Pakistan on Tuesday, two U.S. officials said, just over a week after a round of talks there with Iran’s lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, ended without a deal.
Iran has not publicly confirmed its participation in more talks, and Mr. Ghalibaf said on Monday that Iran would not attend under “the shadow of threats” — an apparent reference to President Trump’s vow to target Iranian power plants and civilian infrastructure if a deal isn’t reached.
In private, however, two senior Iranian officials said that an Iranian delegation was making plans to travel to Pakistan on Tuesday and to resume talks. The Iranian officials said that Mr. Ghalibaf would attend negotiations with the United States if Mr. Vance were there.
Pakistan’s government said it was deploying thousands of security officers in Islamabad, the capital, to ensure negotiators’ safety. The Serena hotel, which hosted the first round of discussions, has been cleared of other clients.
Even if the sides return to the negotiating table, many sticking points remain — on Iran’s nuclear program, for instance, or on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic conduit for oil and gas.
The threat of Iranian attacks has throttled shipping traffic through the strait, prompting the United States to impose a blockade of Iranian ports that the U.S. Navy says has forced 27 ships to turn around.
Here’s what else we are covering:
Energy: Oil prices pulled back and stocks inched higher on Tuesday as investors eyed the possibility of new U.S.-Iran peace talks.
Iranian-flagged ship: Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the United States for “maritime piracy” after it seized the Touska, an Iran-flagged container ship that the U.S. Treasury had sanctioned during Mr. Trump’s first term.
Lebanon: The State Department said it will host another round of ambassador-level talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday.
China: Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the first time he has done so — underscoring the war’s impact on Chinese economic interests.
Shirin Hakim contributed reporting.
April 21, 2026, 5:23 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Hong Kong
Xi calls for Hormuz to reopen as China balances its Gulf interests
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, called this week for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, his first such comments since Iran effectively closed the strategic waterway last month in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks on its territory.
Mr. Xi made the comments in a call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Monday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
“The Strait of Hormuz should remain open to normal navigation, which is in the common interest of regional countries and the international community,” Mr. Xi told Prince Mohammed, according to Xinhua.
Mr. Xi’s comments reflect his difficult balancing act. Iran may be Beijing’s closest strategic partner in the Middle East, but China also has economic ties with Gulf states targeted by Iranian strikes, which it has not condemned.
“This is a symbolic step that reflects the Kingdom’s importance in Beijing’s eyes as the leading Gulf state and partly offsets China’s lack of condemnation or meaningful support for Riyadh,” which has faced missile and drone attacks from Iran, said Tuvia Gering, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
Brian Wong Yue-Shun, a foreign relations expert at the University of Hong Kong, said the message was also directed at Iran.
“Beijing is definitely signaling subtly, yet importantly, to the hawks within Tehran that further unbridled escalation will not be tolerated,” he said.
Mr. Xi’s call with Prince Mohammed follows a meeting in Beijing last week with Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, in which Mr. Xi warned of the world returning to the “law of the jungle.” He did not directly mention the Strait of Hormuz in that meeting, as he did in his call with Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader.
In his conversation with Prince Mohammed, Mr. Xi said China supported regional states in building “a shared home of good neighborliness” so that they could take “their future and destiny into their own hands,” according to Xinhua.
Manoj Kewalramani, the head of Indo-Pacific studies at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore, India, said that Mr. Xi’s message was consistent with earlier Chinese calls for all parties to de-escalate.
“Essentially, Beijing wants the United States to lift its blockade and for Iran to also permit ships to navigate through,” he said.
Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have called for China to play a bigger role as a mediator in the crisis. Almost three years ago, Beijing helped the two sides restore diplomatic relations. But it is unclear if Mr. Xi is willing to deepen China’s involvement and risk getting entangled in a crisis it did not create.
Beijing’s primary concerns over the war are economic, analysts say. China imports as much as 40 percent of its oil through the Strait of Hormuz. A prolonged closure of the strategic waterway could trigger a global economic downturn that could threaten trade, the chief driver of China’s economy.
April 21, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Leo Sands
In a combative statement, a top Iranian commander insisted on Tuesday that Iran maintained a strong hand and stood ready to defend itself against threats. According to Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, who leads the military joint command that oversees Iran’s army and Revolutionary Guards, said Iranian forces would oppose any effort by President Trump to create “false narratives about the situation on the ground.” Trump has repeatedly cast the war as a success for the United States, and all but over. Trump has also claimed that the killing of Iran’s top leaders amounted to regime change, even as Iran’s power structure appears firmly in control.
April 21, 2026, 4:04 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Leo Sands
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the recent seizure by U.S. forces of an Iranian-flagged container ship in the Arabian Sea as an act of “maritime piracy.” In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry demanded the immediate release of the ship and its crew, saying that the seizure had breached the two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States.
April 21, 2026, 3:39 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Oil prices recede and stocks gain as investors eye possible peace talks
Oil prices pulled back and stocks inched higher on Tuesday as investors looked to the possibility of a second round of peace talks between the United States and Iran.
With the two-week cease-fire set to expire this week, the two countries appeared to be preparing to take part in another round of peace negotiations in Pakistan, even as tensions in the Strait of Hormuz escalated in the last few days.
Oil prices pull back
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was about $95 a barrel, down about 1 percent on Tuesday.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was around $87 a barrel, down roughly a dollar from the previous day.
Investors and analysts are focused on the continued disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas that normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Stocks get a lift
Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a modest increase when trading resumes in the United States on Tuesday.
Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, were mostly higher. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi and Taiwan’s Taiex index rose about 2 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed more than 1 percent. Stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China ticked up slightly.
In Europe, stocks were subdued. The Stoxx 600, a broad index that tracks the region’s largest companies, inched up 0.5 percent when trading began. The FTSE 100 in Britain and the DAX in Germany gained less that half a percent.
Gasoline prices slide
Gas prices fell on Tuesday to a national average of $4.02 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. That is down from a recent high of $4.17 earlier in April. Still, drivers are paying about 35 percent more for gas than they were when the war began.
Diesel prices also stood at $5.51 on Monday, up 47 percent since the start of the war.
Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.
April 21, 2026, 12:04 a.m. ET7 hours ago
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the first time he has done so — underscoring the strain the conflict between the United States and Iran is placing on China’s economic interests. Mr. Xi said the strategic waterway, through which China imports as much as 40 percent of its oil, “should remain open to normal navigation” during a phone call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Monday, according to Chinese state media.
China has months of strategic energy reserves, but it can ill afford a prolonged global economic downturn as it relies on global trade to power an already sluggish domestic economy. Though countries in the region have called for Beijing to play a larger role, it has been constrained by competing interests and a reluctance to become too entangled in the crisis. China is balancing ties with Iran and Gulf states like Saudi Arabia while also seeking to preserve a detente with the United States ahead of a summit next month between Mr. Xi and President Trump.