The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Trump says doesn't care if Iran returns to talks -

US President Donald Trump said he does not care if Iran comes back to negotiations with the United States after weekend talks in Pakistan failed to produce a deal.

"I don't care if they come back or not. If they don't come back, I'm fine," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, upon his return from Florida.

- Countdown to US Gulf blockade -

US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that talks with Iran failed to reach an agreement, saying he was leaving after putting forward a "final and best offer".

Vance signalled that he was still giving time to Iran to consider the offer from the United States, which on Tuesday said it would pause attacks with Israel for two weeks pending negotiations.

"We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We'll see if the Iranians accept it," Vance told reporters after 21 hours of talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

By Ariba Shahid, Asif Shahzad and Parisa Hafezi

ISLAMABAD, April 12 (Reuters) - Negotiations between the United States and Iran appeared to have concluded for now, Iran's government said early on Sunday, after a series of talks in Pakistan https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistani-five-star-hotel-becomes-unlikely-site-us-iran-talks-2026-04-11/ to end the six-week war https://www.reuters.com/world/iran/ between Washington and Tehran.

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - Police said on Saturday they had arrested 212 people at a protest in London's Trafalgar Square opposing Britain's banning of the Palestine Action group.

The gathering was the first since London's High Court ruled in February that a ban designating the pro-Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation was unlawful L8N3Z90PY. UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood has been granted approval to appeal the ruling.

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY, April 11 (Reuters) - Pope Leo https://www.reuters.com/world/pope/ on Saturday urged world leaders to end what he called the "madness of war," in an impassioned appeal as senior U.S. and Iranian officials met in Pakistan nL1N40U01A to discuss ending the six-week conflict.

At a special prayer vigil in St. Peter's Basilica, the first U.S. pope decried the use of religious language to justify war and said a "delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us ... is becoming increasingly unpredictable".

Pope Leo lashed out against warmongers on Saturday while calling on billions of people around the globe to embrace peace and "believe once again in love, moderation and good politics".

In one of his most passionate entreaties yet to end the raging conflict in the Middle East, the American pope said faith was needed "in order to face this dramatic hour in history together".

Police in London said they had arrested more 200 pro-Palestinian protesters Saturday at a demonstration in support of the banned group Palestine Action.

Officers carried away activists to cheers and clapping from other demonstrators who gathered for the sit-down demonstration in the capital's Trafalgar Square.

The protesters held placards in support of the banned group Palestine Action, making them liable for arrest.

Smoke from an Israeli strike still lingered in the air as a plane from Lebanon's national carrier took off from Beirut airport, which has stayed open despite the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The country's only international passenger facility, whose departure boards are now largely red with cancellations, is located on the Mediterranean coast at the edge of Beirut's southern suburbs.

They came from around the world: hundreds of journalists rushed to Islamabad's flagship convention centre -- converted into a media hub by Pakistani authorities for landmark talks between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.

But as negotiations began behind closed doors half a kilometre away, all the world's media could do was wait -- and sip on an expertly brewed coffee while listening to live eastern folk music.

Even the lattes had a tagline: "Brewed for Peace."

Two US Navy warships transited the Strait of Hormuz to begin clearing Iranian-laid mines, US Central Command said Saturday -- a claim Tehran denied as the Revolutionary Guards threatened to deal "severely" with military vessels crossing the strategic waterway.

The announcement of the first such transit since the US-Israeli war with Iran began came shortly after President Donald Trump said Washington had started "clearing out" the strait, through which a fifth of the world's crude oil passes.