{"id":377349,"date":"2026-04-13T13:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/377349\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:02:09","slug":"us-blockade-of-irans-ports-set-to-start-within-an-hour-as-pope-responds-to-trump-criticism-follow-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/377349\/","title":{"rendered":"US blockade of Iran’s ports set to start within an hour as Pope responds to Trump criticism – follow live"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Path to negotiations still open as shaky ceasefire holdspublished at 11:09 BST<\/p>\n

11:09 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent<\/p>\n

\"USImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

The door to diplomacy has not been shut, even though the US Vice-President JD Vance boarded a plane saying he had made the US’s “final and best” offer. <\/p>\n

Since then, President Trump has said the meetings \u201cwent well\u201d, even that some points were agreed. And although the atmosphere is not the defining issue, it makes a difference in diplomacy.<\/p>\n

We’re hearing now from people who were in the room that discussions which began with maximalist demands became productive, even, as Trump put it, “friendly”.<\/p>\n

Now that Tehran’s political taboo of meeting face-to-face at this high level has been broken, it opens a path to a more serious negotiating track.<\/p>\n

But there are big bright red lines on both sides, especially on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

On that issue and others, including the Strait of Hormuz, neither side will move easily, quickly, or at all \u2013 that\u2019s the task of talks.<\/p>\n

For now, the shaky ceasefire is holding, just. Even though both sides may want to avoid a military escalation, we have seen all too often the real risk of an accidental tumbling into confrontation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Path to negotiations still open as shaky ceasefire holdspublished at 11:09 BST 11:09 BST Lyse DoucetChief international correspondent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-377349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}