Washington, April 20 -- US President Donald Trump said his negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran, lifting hopes of extending a ceasefire set to expire this week even as Washington and Tehran remain locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. The prospect of talks, came as ships remain unable to transit the critical waterway amid threats from Iran and a US blockade on ships heading to and from Iranian ports. Iranian officials said earlier on Sunday that they remained open to negotiation, but held firm that ships wouldn't pass the strait while the US blockade remained in effect. "It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot," Iranian parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf said in an interview aired on state television late Saturday. However, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency announced in a post on X that Tehran would skip the talks. "Iran stated that its absence from the second round of talks stems from what it called 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," IRNA reported in a post on X. In his post announcing official travel for another round of talks, Trump accused Iran of violating the ceasefire by firing at ships passing the strait and threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran, if it doesn't take the deal that the U.S. is offering. "If they don't, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran," Trump wrote. He didn't detail which officials that the US would be sending to a second round of in-person talks with Iran is Islamabad. The White House and office of US Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of talks, didn't immediately respond to messages. It remained unclear whether either side had shifted their stances on unresolved issues that derailed the last round of negotiations, including Iran's nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and control over the Strait of Hormuz. Qalibaf, who is Iran's chief negotiator in talks with the US , said before Trump's latest comments that Iran still was seeking peace despite the blockade and deep-seated distrust of Washington. "There will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy," he said, acknowledging that the gap between the two sides remained wide. Iran had announced the strait's reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon took hold on Friday....