Iran accused the United States of “armed piracy” after a ship seizure in the Strait of Hormuz and vowed a response, deepening tensions just hours after Donald Trump said he was sending his team to Islamabad for possible talks with Tehran.
The blast of anger came as Ebrahim Azizi said Iran is still prepared to continue talks with Washington, but only within limits it says must be respected. He said the release of frozen assets had been among the Islamic Republic’s preconditions, and that continuing negotiations “does not mean to negotiate at any cost.”
Azizi said Iran has set red lines that “must be observed” and that any decision to send a team to Islamabad would depend on whether the American side and the messages it has received from Iran send a positive signal. “We have never feared the principle of negotiation,” he said, adding that Iran could consider moving “perhaps today or tomorrow” if the conditions are right.
The shift in tone lands at a sensitive moment for both sides. Iran’s warning followed the seizure in Hormuz, a chokepoint central to regional shipping, while the prospect of renewed diplomacy surfaced only hours after Trump’s announcement. Tehran’s comments suggest it wants to keep a negotiating channel open even as it tries to raise the cost of pressure at sea.
At the same time, the political noise in Israel is rising again. A Jerusalem court this week accepted a request from Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer to cancel the prime minister’s testimony in his corruption trial, citing “security and diplomatic” reasons. Netanyahu faces three corruption charges dating back to 2019, and the case is now in the cross-examination phase of his own testimony.
Delays in the trial have often been tied to the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and this latest interruption fits the same pattern: politics, security and diplomacy colliding in real time. Iran is signaling that it will answer the ship seizure, but it is also leaving the door ajar for talks with the United States if it believes its red lines are being acknowledged.