LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The deadline is ticking towards the end of the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Talks that the U.S. had been expecting in Pakistan are now in question after the U.S. disabled and boarded a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran said it retaliated.
FADEL: For more, we go to NPR's Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan. Hi, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: OK. So President Trump said Sunday that a U.S. delegation was headed to Pakistan for talks. What's the latest on the Iranian side?
ARRAF: Yeah. Well, Iran never confirmed that the talks would take place despite that announcement that the U.S. delegation was headed there. And this morning, it made everything pretty clear. The Iranian state news agency quoted a senior official as saying, we have no plans for the next round of negotiations. So that U.S. seizure of the vessel, the container ship played into that, of course. And then there was the Iranian drone attack in response to that. Iran said the U.S. was clearly not serious about negotiations, and especially after new threats by President Trump to bomb all power plants and bridges. It said all of this was intended to do what it called betrayed diplomacy.
FADEL: Iran, in this war, has used access through that strategic waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, as leverage by restricting oil traffic. And then the U.S. said, well, we'll block it back. We're going to blockade ships to and from Iran. Tell us more about the situation there.
ARRAF: Yeah. Well, this - yesterday, the U.S. Navy disabled and then boarded an Iranian-flagged container ship. Iran said it had been heading from China to Iran. This morning, Iran called that action armed piracy and said it responded by firing drones at U.S. military warships. It gave no details, though, and the U.S. military did not respond to a request for confirmation on the reported drone attack. Iran said it would have responded further, but it was concerned over crew members and families that are apparently on that vessel.
FADEL: OK. So given all that you're describing here, what are the prospects for diplomacy?
ARRAF: Well, interestingly, Iran this morning also said that it's examining new U.S. proposals it said it received in recent days. There's no word from the U.S. on what those were, and Iran did not elaborate. But a senior Iranian national security official was quoted as saying regarding the talks that the U.S. must accept the new system in the Strait of Hormuz - that strategic waterway. And that new system is basically a structure of tolls that Iran has tried to set up, which worked for a certain time, in which it would allow transit through that strait that it controls if money were paid or if it aligned with its political interests. It also reiterated that a ceasefire in Lebanon is needed for any agreement to take place. And all of that, of course, is overshadowing the original U.S. reason for going to war, which was reportedly to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions.
FADEL: You mentioned a ceasefire in Lebanon, which is another front. We've been following Israel's invasion of Lebanon. What are the developments there?
ARRAF: Well, it's a very fragile ceasefire. Israeli forces moved into the south, with more than 1 million displaced and more than 2,000 Lebanese killed, many of them civilians killed in what Israel says is a campaign against Hezbollah. Israel says 16 of its soldiers have been killed. This morning, Israel warned displaced villagers not to return to villages in the south. But it's important to remind people, many of them have no homes to go back to. Israel has been destroying some of those villages to create what it calls a buffer zone.
FADEL: That's NPR's Jane Arraf in Amman. Thank you, Jane.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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