Middle East crisis live: Iran reportedly rejects US peace talks; Trump says marines took custody of an Iranian-flagged vessel

A Woodland Hills woman has been arrested for allegedly trafficking arms on behalf of the Iranian government, federal prosecutors said Sunday.

Shamim Mafi, 44, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night, according to first assistant US attorney Bill Essayli. She has been charged with brokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan, he said.

“Mafi is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016,” Essayli wrote. “She is expected to make her initial appearance on Monday afternoon in US District Court in downtown LA.”

Donald Trump’s decision to send US officials to Islamabad for further talks on Monday with Iran just 24 hours after Iran once again closed the strait of Hormuz will signal to Tehran that the strategic waterway remains a bargaining asset beyond parallel.

It will also confirm in Iran’s eyes that the US president’s chaotic approach to diplomacy doubles the need for Tehran to act calmly and strategically – two competencies it believes he totally lacks.

Such is the distrust and fog surrounding relations between Iran and the US that no one can know whether Trump – after meetings in the Situation Room on Saturday – has once again decided to use diplomacy as a giant smokescreen prior to a further military attack on Iran once the ceasefire expires on Wednesday.

At a minimum it is undeniable that the run-up to a proposed second round of talks in Islamabad has been far from propitious, partly because an impatient Trump repeatedly misunderstands the need to proceed sequentially or take account of the sensitivities on the Iranian side. Iranian state media reported on Sunday evening that Tehran had not yet decided whether to join.

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Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday, according to a statement from Sharif’s office.

It says that during the 45-minute phone call, the two leaders “engaged in detailed exchanges on the current regional situation”. Sharif thanked Pezeshkian for sending a delegation to talks in Islamabad earlier this month. The statement did not mention future peace talks with the US.

“The Prime Minister reaffirmed that, with the support of friends and partners, Pakistan would remain fully committed to its honest and sincere efforts to advance regional peace and security,” the statement said.

Mahmoud Nabavian, an Iranian member of the Parliament who was part of the delegation for recent talks between Washington and Tehran in Islamabad, has warned of a “renewed military operation” against Iran.

“The entry of enemy equipment into the region under the pretext of Iran’s maritime blockade, like the negotiation process and the claim of the war’s end, is nothing more than a deception, and it appears the enemy is seeking renewed military operations,” he wrote on social media.

In another post, he shared a screenshot of Trump’s post on Truth Social where the US president threatened to “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran”.

Nabavian responded that Trump “has once again spouted nonsense and threatened the dear people of Iran”.

He added: “Know this, if there is any aggression against the Iranian nation, we will destroy all economic interests and infrastructure belonging to America, the regional energy, and the Zionist regime.”

Iran has reportedly rejected participation in a second round of peace talks with the US in Pakistan, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”, according to the official IRNA news agency.

This follows reports that the White House planned to send a delegation, led by vice-president JD Vance, to renew negotiations in Islamabad on Monday.

Israeli fire on Sunday has killed one Palestinian and wounded three others in central Gaza, health officials told the Associated Press.

Palestinians in Gaza have reported that Israeli strikes have intensified over the past few days across the enclave. Since a fragile ceasefire deal was reached in October, deadly Israeli strikes have continued to be a constant threat in Gaza. Gaza’s health ministry reports that more than 775 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began.

The Israeli military published for the first time a map of its new deployment line inside Lebanon on Sunday, bringing dozens of mostly abandoned Lebanese villages under its control, days after a ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect.

Stretching east to west, the deployment line on the map runs 5-10km (about 3-6 miles) deep from the border into Lebanese territory, where Israel has said that it plans to create a so-called buffer zone. Israeli forces have destroyed Lebanese villages in the area, saying their aim is to protect northern Israeli towns from Hezbollah attacks. It has created buffer zones in Syria and in Gaza, where it controls more than half the enclave.

“Five divisions, alongside Israeli Navy forces, are operating simultaneously south of the forward defense line in southern Lebanon in order to dismantle Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites and to prevent direct threats to communities in northern Israel,” the military said in a statement accompanying the map.

Israel and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to the US-backed ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The deal, which followed the first direct talks in decades between Israel and Lebanon on 14 April, is meant to enable broader US-Iran negotiations but with Israeli forces maintaining positions deep inside southern Lebanon.

Iran currently has not made a decision on whether to send a negotiating delegation to Pakistan “as long as there is a naval blockade”, Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported.

Yesterday, Iranian officials reversed the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and reimposed restrictions on the vital shipping lane after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iranian ports. Iranian officials have maintained that the US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

The US energy secretary has said that petrol prices are expected to remain high due to the fallout from the war on Iran, CNN reports.

Chris Wright spoke to the network and said he believes that gas prices have “likely peaked” but may not reach below $3 gallon “until next year”.

“Gas below $3 a gallon could happen later this year, that might not happen until next year. But prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down,” he said.

The national average currently stands at $4.05 per gallon, which is significantly higher than a year ago.

Within the course of an hour, the Trump administration has reversed course three times on whether JD Vance would be heading to Islamabad for the next round of Iran peace talks.

Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News that the vice president would be leading the American delegation set to arrive in Islamabad on Monday.

Donald Trump then came back to ABC News to say that Vance would not be going to Islamabad because of security issues – it was too short of a notice for Secret Service.

The White House then told CNN that Vance will be going – “Things changed,” an official said – and in fact, Vance will be leading the delegation that includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

Metropolitan police in London are investigating whether a series of arson attacks against Jewish sites were carried out by Iranian proxies.

Speaking outside Kenton united synagogue in north-west London, the site of the latest arson attack, deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national co-ordinator for counter terrorism, said: “The nature of the incidents has been similar – arson attacks targeting Israeli- and Jewish-linked premises in London.

“Most have been claimed online by the group Ashab al-Yamin (Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right).

“This same group has claimed several incidents over recent months at places of worship, business and financial institutions across Europe. These locations all appear to be linked to Jewish or Israeli interests.”

The Guardian’s Jamie Grierson has more.

Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the deputy prime minister of Pakistan, spoke on Sunday with Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran.

The phone call included discussion on “the need for continued dialogue and engagement as essential to resolving the current issues as soon as possible for promoting the peace and stability in the region and beyond”, according to Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, is slated to have a phone call with Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, later today as well.

These phone conversations took place as Donald Trump confirmed that a US delegation would be in Islamabad on Monday for another round of peace talks regarding the conflict in Iran.

The US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement and is “both unlawful and criminal”, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said Sunday.

“The United States’ so-called ‘blockade’ of Iran’s ports or coastline is not only a violation of Pakistani-mediated ceasefire but also both unlawful and criminal,” Baqaei posted on X.

Baqaei also said the blockade was in violation of the UN Charter and constitutes an act of aggression.

“Moreover, by deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to war crime and crime against humanity,” Baqaei said.

ABC News had previously reported that Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, had said that JD Vance was going to lead the American delegation in Islamabad this week.

Donald Trump has since corrected that statement to say that the vice president would not be going to Pakistan. Trump said his representatives would be in Islamabad for peace talks on Monday night, but that Secret Service couldn’t arrange to accompany Vance there on such short notice.

“It’s only because of security,” Trump said. “JD’s great.”

Trump had earlier confirmed to Fox News and The New York Post that special enoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kusher, Trump’s son-in-law, would be going to Islamabad.

Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday that this was Iran’s “last chance” to agree to a peace deal.

“If Iran does not sign this deal, the whole country is getting blown up,” Trump said. The US president then reiterated his earlier point on Truth Social that the US would target bridges and power plants specifically if Iran does not sign this agreement.

The deal entails reopening the strait of Hormuz and making sure Iranians do not have enriched uranium.

Trump also made clear that he would not be “making the same mistake” that Barack Obama did with the 2015 agreement his administration made to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. In exchange for the lifting of some sanctions, Obama had conceded that Iran could contiune enriching its uranium for 15 years, but only at the level of purity required for a civilian nuclear programme. The agreement also included limiting Iran’s stockpile of uranium to 300kg.

Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, calling the deal “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions” the US had ever entered into”.

Since then, Iran has grown its stockpile to 400.9kg of uranium enriched to 60% uranium-235 – a level that can be quickly enriched to weapons-grade – 90%.

Donald Trump told The New York Post that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will also be in Islamabad for the next round of peace talks with Iran.

JD Vance will be leading the delegation, Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News.