World | By Mayson Bond
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said Washington could reopen negotiations with Iran “maybe at some point”, leaving a narrow diplomatic opening after saying only a day earlier that no talks were taking place or scheduled, while renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza added another layer of instability to an already volatile Middle East.
Trump’s latest language does not amount to an announcement of negotiations. No date, venue or negotiating team has been disclosed, and the US-Iran dispute over the Strait of Hormuz remains unresolved. But the shift from explicitly ruling out talks to acknowledging they could resume suggests Washington has not completely closed the diplomatic route even as economic and military pressure continues. The 60-day negotiating period tied to efforts to reopen Hormuz has already expired without an agreement, leaving shipping through the strategically vital waterway disrupted and the broader confrontation vulnerable to renewed escalation.
At the same time, the Gaza front is moving in the opposite direction. Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed at least 10 people, according to Palestinian health officials, a day after a strike on a seaside café killed seven. Israel said Wednesday’s attacks targeted Hamas commanders, including individuals it accused of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attacks. The renewed violence comes only days after Trump envoy Jared Kushner visited the region in an attempt to advance the administration’s Gaza peace framework.
The diplomatic process remains stuck over the same fundamental sequencing dispute. Israel insists Hamas must disarm before further Israeli withdrawal, while Hamas says disarmament cannot be separated from Israeli withdrawal and progress toward Palestinian statehood. Despite that deadlock, Washington is continuing to build the architecture of its Gaza plan: the US is providing more than $206 million for the proposed International Stabilization Force, including $200 million for infrastructure and operations. Five countries have pledged troops, while Egypt and Jordan are expected to help train Palestinian police.
The Changer Angle: Washington Is Building Peace Structures While the Wars Keep Moving
The striking feature of the moment is the contradiction between diplomatic architecture and battlefield reality. Trump is again leaving open the possibility of negotiations with Iran while no actual negotiating process has restarted. In Gaza, Washington is committing hundreds of millions of dollars to institutions designed for a post-conflict order while Israeli strikes continue and the central political agreement needed to make that order work remains stalled.
Pakistan could remain relevant to the Iran track. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir have discussed efforts to advance “political and diplomatic solutions,” according to Iranian reporting, meaning indirect regional channels remain active even while formal Washington-Tehran talks are frozen.
The emerging picture is therefore not one of diplomacy ending, nor of diplomacy succeeding. It is a Middle East in which negotiating channels remain alive but are repeatedly being overtaken by events on the ground. Trump’s “at some point” may preserve an exit route with Tehran, but until that possibility becomes an actual negotiating process — and until the Gaza ceasefire produces sustained restraint — diplomacy remains behind the pace of the conflicts it is supposed to contain.