Iran casts doubt over Islamabad talks
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump says a US delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Monday for negotiations with Iran. The White House says it will again be led by Vice-President JD Vance. But reports from Iran say hardliners in the leadership are against attending as long as America's blockade of Iranian ports continues.
Also in the programme: The party of the pro-Russian former president, Rumen Radev, is on course to win Bulgaria's general election and more than 150 authors leave a prominent French publisher, but why?
(Photo: A police officer gestures to a vehicle at a check post along a road near Faisal Masjid, as Pakistan prepares to host the U.S. and Iran for the second phase of peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan April 19, 2026. CREDIT: REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to Newsour from the BBC World Service, live from London, with Owen Bennett Jones. |
| 0:15.7 | Earlier today, the White House said that the US Vice President, J.D. Vance, was on his way back to Islamabad, |
| 0:21.9 | along with Trump's former business partner, Steve Wittkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. |
| 0:26.9 | But the latest from Iran is Iran will not currently plan to attend the new U.S. talks. |
| 0:33.7 | That's the state media. |
| 0:35.2 | We'll get an American voice in a moment. |
| 0:36.7 | But first, the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lees Doucette. We'll get an American voice in a moment, but first, |
| 0:43.0 | the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lees Doucette. She is in Tehran on the condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian service, a restriction that applies |
| 0:47.4 | to all international media organisations operating in Iran. Right, Lees, the latest is currently planning not to attend. |
| 0:56.4 | Bit of wiggle room there. |
| 0:58.6 | Yes, I think you'll remember that last weekend that Iran only confirmed at the 11th hour |
| 1:05.5 | that it would attend what turned out to be high-level historic face-to-face talks with the U.S. delegation |
| 1:12.9 | headed by the Vice President J.D. Vans. |
| 1:15.6 | I was in Islamabad then and reports swirled all day. |
| 1:18.7 | Will they come? Will they not come? |
| 1:20.9 | I'm not sure whether they're doing that again. |
| 1:23.9 | What Iranian officials are maintaining a stony silence in the midst of these media reports coming out of the United States. |
| 1:31.8 | But there have been some media, including Tasnim, linked to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying that there will be no decision taken to attend while the United States maintains its naval blockade of Iran's ports in the |
| 1:47.7 | strait of Hormuz. |
| 1:49.7 | That can't have been helped by this latest report that an Iranian-flag cargo ship named |
| 1:55.0 | Tuska was actually taken over by the U.S. U.S. Marines, which now have custody of the vessel. And they |
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