Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf stated that Iran is "prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield" in response to threats from United States President Donald Trump. Trump had warned that if the two-week ceasefire expires on Wednesday without a deal, Iran would "see problems like they’ve never seen before".

The war of words unfolds as the second round of US-Iran peace talks, scheduled for this week in Pakistan, remains in limbo. The US seizure of an Iranian-flagged vessel near the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend angered Iranian authorities and triggered another surge in global oil prices, exacerbating geopolitical tensions.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi noted, "There is no official confirmation on whether Iran is going to take part in talks in Islamabad." He added, "Iran has tried to keep the door ajar to diplomacy, so there is still a possibility."

In an overnight post on X, Ghalibaf expressed anger at Trump for "imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire", asserting, "We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield." Asadi described this as a "mixed message", indicating that "Iran is ready for negotiations but not under terms imposed by the US regime".

Negotiations, if they occur, are expected to be fraught with difficulty due to several complicated sticking points, including issues related to the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions, war reparations, ballistic missiles, and Iran’s regional relations. Meanwhile, Trump, purportedly confident that Iran would negotiate, threatened that otherwise the country would "see problems", ominously suggesting that "lots of bombs start going off" if no deal is reached.

Source: www.aljazeera.com