Pakistan, April 26 -- In a week of diplomatic whiplash, US President Donald Trump announced his envoys would not travel to Islamabad for peace talks yet insisted that this did not mean hostilities would restart. That is a difficult line to sell when the Pentagon is boasting about a tightening blockade near the Strait of Hormuz and claiming it has diverted 34 vessels.

Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian frames this as a calculated campaign.His argument is simple enough. Naval pressure, threats and attacks on infrastructure cannot sit beside the language of negotiation. That charge will resonate in a region where the memory of sanctions, air strikes and broken guarantees is not academic. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, after talks ...