Iran has no plans to participate in the second round of negotiations with the United States in Pakistan, state broadcaster IRIB said on Monday.

This came after United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that a US delegation will arrive in Pakistani capital Islamabad on Monday for talks with Iran.

The two-week ceasefire in West Asia, which took effect on April 8, will end on Wednesday.

Here are more top updates from the war in West Asia:

  • US fires at, captures Iranian ship: Trump said on Sunday that the United States Navy had fired at and captured a sanctioned Iranian cargo vessel after it attempted to breach the naval blockade imposed by the US.
  • The military said that the ship, Touska, had tried to sail toward Iranian port Bandar Abbas. However, guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the vessel as it transited in the northern Arabian Sea. It added that the US military had issued multiple warnings to the Iranian ship, but the crew “failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period”. The military then struck Touska’s engine room. US soldiers boarded the vessel to take control of it.
  • Iran vows to retaliate: Iranian state-owned news agency Tasnim said that after the US Navy struck the vessel, Iranian forces also attacked US military ships with drones. Tehran said that it will retaliate against the US’ actions.
  • Iran death toll: Iran’s forensic medicine organisation on Monday said that the death toll for the war had increased to more than 3,375, of which 2,875 were men and 496 were women, AP reported. Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization added that only four of those who died remained unidentified. He did not clarify how many of those who died were civilians.
  • Oil prices jump: Amid uncertainty, the price of benchmark Brent crude spiked more than 5% on Monday to trade at $95.2 per barrel.
  • However, major Asian stock indices rose on Monday. In India, the benchmark Sensex index had risen 0.5% as of 11.30 am. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Japan’s Nikkei, South Korea’s Kospi and China’s Shanghai Composite indices were all trading half a percent higher.
  • Peace talks: Reza Amiri Moghadam, the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, said that the faultlines will remain as long as the US’ naval blockade is in place. “You cannot keep violating international law, double down on your blockade, threaten Iran with further war crimes, insist on unreasonable demands, pace out with rhetoric and pretend to be pursuing ‘diplomacy’,” he said on social media.

The war

The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran’s action posed an existential threat to Israel. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Iran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region and targeting major cities in Gulf countries.

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Tehran also effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterbody connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, for most international commercial vessels, triggering a global energy crisis. About 20% of global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.

On April 8, Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire to allow further negotiations to end the conflict. While Israel, which was not involved in the talks, has not struck Iran since the ceasefire took effect, it had continued to attack Lebanon until the deal reached on Thursday.

The peace talks between Iran and the US that were held in Islamabad collapsed on April 12.

Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.