{"id":207146,"date":"2026-04-10T04:48:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-optimistic-about-iran-peace-deal-even-as-ceasefire-appears-strained-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T04:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:48:26","slug":"trump-optimistic-about-iran-peace-deal-even-as-ceasefire-appears-strained-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-optimistic-about-iran-peace-deal-even-as-ceasefire-appears-strained-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump 'optimistic' about Iran peace deal even as ceasefire appears strained – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he was \u201cvery optimistic\u201d a peace deal with Iran was within reach as a diplomatic delegation led by Vice President JD Vance prepared to head to Pakistan for high-stakes talks aimed at ending the nearly six-week conflict.
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Iran\u2019s leaders \u201ctalk much differently when you\u2019re at a meeting than they do to the press. They\u2019re much more reasonable,\u201d Trump said in a phone interview. \u201cThey\u2019re agreeing to all the things that they have to agree to. Remember, they\u2019ve been conquered. They have no military.\u201d
\u201cIf they don\u2019t make a deal, it\u2019s going to be very painful,\u201d Trump added.
But the tentative ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran already showed signs of strain, as Israeli forces continued carrying out attacks across southern Lebanon, where the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group is based.
In a phone call Wednesday, Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pull back on the strikes to help ensure the success of the upcoming negotiations, two senior administration officials told NBC News. Trump confirmed that conversation in his interview with NBC News on Thursday, saying the Israelis were \u201cscaling back\u201d operations in Lebanon.
\u201cI spoke with Bibi and he\u2019s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,\u201d Trump said. Vance, speaking to reporters in Hungary on Wednesday, used similar rhetoric, saying the Israelis may \u201ccheck themselves a little bit\u201d in the assault on Lebanon.
European leaders have likewise pleaded for Lebanon to be included in the limited ceasefire. Netanyahu has shown no public indication he\u2019s prepared to scale back the strikes, though on Thursday he said his government will seek \u201cdirect negotiations\u201d with Lebanon.
\u201cI insisted that the temporary ceasefire with Iran not include Hezbollah, and we continue to strike them forcefully,\u201d Netanyahu said in a statement <\/a>Wednesday, adding that the \u201cdeep friendship\u201d between Israel\u2019s government and Trump was \u201cchanging the face of the Middle East.\u201d
In an interview <\/a>Thursday with \u201cMeet the Press NOW,\u201d Ophir Falk, Netanyahu\u2019s chief foreign policy adviser, refused to say that Israel was scaling back its military operation in Lebanon while insisting that the president and the prime minister are in \u201ccomplete agreement.\u201d
David Miliband, the former British foreign secretary who is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said there were concerns in Beirut last week that Lebanon might be left out of any agreements among the U.S., Israel and Iran.
\u201cI found a lot of anger at Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon into the war, anger at Israel for the strikes, anger at the U.S. for starting the war and anger at their own government for its lack of agency\u201d to do anything about it, Miliband told NBC News, describing his conversations in Lebanon.
Trump announced a two-week pause in bombing on Tuesday after threatening that a \u201cwhole civilization will die tonight\u201d if Iran did not open the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, a crucial passageway choked off in the conflict. But the leaders disagree on the terms; Trump and Netanyahu say Lebanon is not part of the agreement, yet Iran says it is.
At least 250 civilians were killed in Lebanon on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, in what Israel described as its largest offensive yet against Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, only five ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the first day of the fragile truce, according to MarineTraffic, a ship tracking and maritime analytics provider. All five vessels were bulk carriers, and none were oil and gas tankers, MarineTraffic reported \u2014 raising questions about whether Iran is actually loosening its stranglehold on the crucial commercial waterway. Two had crossed by Thursday midday.
In notable comments online, the United Arab Emirates\u2019 industry minister blasted the status quo around the strait. \u201cThis moment requires clarity,\u201d wrote Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the state-controlled oil giant ADNOC. \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is being restricted, conditioned and controlled.\u201d
Vance, in his remarks in Hungary, vowed the war would resume unless Tehran followed through on its promise to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where around 110 ships traveled daily before the war broke out. \u201cThe president is not going to abide by our terms if the Iranians are not abiding by their terms,\u201d he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, hailing the two-week ceasefire as a \u201cvictory\u201d for the U.S., said it was \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d if the Strait of Hormuz was indeed largely closed, though she added that the president was privately assured it would be open.
\u201cWe have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today, and I will reiterate the president\u2019s expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely,\u201d Leavitt told reporters at a briefing. \u201cThat is his expectation. It has been relayed to him privately that that is what\u2019s taking place, and these reports publicly are false.\u201d
Mahdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament, suggested on X that Israel\u2019s continued wave of strikes in Lebanon threatened to derail the talks altogether. \u201cWithout fully restraining America\u2019s rabid dog in Lebanon, there will be no ceasefire or negotiations, and the missiles are ready to launch,\u201d Mohammadi said.
The exact nature of the scheduled diplomatic talks in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad were still coming into focus Thursday. Vance will be joined by Steve Witkoff, the White House\u2019s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law. The makeup of the Iranian delegation was not immediately known.
Vance had been in touch with intermediaries from Pakistan about a potential deal in the last two weeks, leading to a flurry of diplomatic activity while he was overseas in Hungary on Monday and Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
Trump directed him to communicate a version of the message he had made publicly: The U.S. is open to a possible ceasefire, but only if certain U.S. demands are met, the source said.
Vance also repeatedly communicated a \u201cstern message\u201d that Trump was growing increasingly impatient and that there would be more pressure on Iranian infrastructure until Tehran made a deal, telling the intermediaries that Trump was going to make \u201ccrystal clear\u201d that he was prepared to hit targets not yet struck by the U.S.
Iran\u2019s envoy to Pakistan, for his part, said on X that the regime\u2019s delegation would arrive in Pakistan on Thursday night \u2014 before deleting the post without explanation.
Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam said that \u201cdespite skepticism of Iranian public opinion due to repeated ceasefire violations by the Iranian regime,\u201d the group would travel to Islamabad on the invitation of Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
He did not provide further comment after deleting the post less than an hour later.
Pakistani authorities have ramped up security measures in Islamabad, according to The Associated Press, deploying hundreds of additional police and paramilitary forces. (NBC News has not independently verified that report.)
The 10-point peace plan outlined by Iranian state media calls for the Islamic Republic to keep control of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, and for the complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from bases across the region. Trump has suggested that is not a plan he believes could form the basis for a deal.
In an interview with NBC News, a former commander with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran\u2019s powerful paramilitary group, conceded that many of the regime\u2019s conditions were unlikely to be accepted by Washington but insisted Tehran was prepared to make concessions.
\u201cNegotiation between Iran and the United States is like a trade \u2014 both sides have to give something,\u201d Hussein Kanani Moghadam said in a video interview from Tehran.
Peter Nicholas is a senior White House reporter for NBC News.
Daniel Arkin is a senior reporter at NBC News.
Katherine Doyle is a White House reporter for NBC News.
Monica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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