The United States is reportedly going to send thousands of additional troops to the Middle East in the coming days in its latest attempt to pressure Iran into a deal, despite US President Donald Trump predicting that the war with Tehran is "close to over".

"I think it's close to over … I view it as very close to being over," Trump told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday, and said that he thinks Iran wants to "make a deal very badly". He hinted at a possible second round of talks between the two countries in Pakistan in the coming days.

The Washington Post reported the new military deployment, but it did not state how many troops would be sent and this news is yet to be confirmed by the US government.

While Iran has yet to confirm or comment on more talks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan released a statement on Wednesday saying that Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif would be visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye from Wednesday to Saturday.

The statement said the visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar "will be in the bilateral context" to discuss ongoing bilateral cooperation, regional peace and security.

Sharif's visit to Turkiye includes his participation in the Fifth Antalya Diplomacy Forum, where he is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders.

During his news briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the indication is that it was highly probable the US-Iran talks would restart, following his phone call with the deputy prime minister of Pakistan.

Guterres expressed his "enormous admiration" for Pakistan and the initiative it has taken to bring peace to the Middle East.

Currently, a US-imposed blockade is in force in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, the US Central Command said that US Navy guided-missile destroyers are among the assets conducting a blockade mission impacting Iranian ports, and the blockade is being enforced impartially against the vessels of all nations entering or leaving coastal areas in Iran.

In a statement, US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper said that a blockade of Iranian ports has been "fully implemented as US forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East".

But on Tuesday, at least two vessels transited through the Strait of Hormuz en route to Iranian ports after altering their Automatic Identification System destination data, following the US blockade of ships entering and leaving Iran, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency, citing the British shipping media Lloyd's List.

The two Iran-flagged container ships, which previously indicated that they were sailing to the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, changed their AIS messages to the more general designation of "PG Ports", meaning "Persian Gulf ports". They were able to continue their journey toward Bandar Abbas on Tuesday.

Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, called the US naval blockade "a reckless misstep meant possibly for a dignified exit and face-saving".

"It's meant to gain credibility by creating this mentality that things are imposed by force and thereby justifying deployment of ammunition, rhetoric, loss of lives, and costs on US taxpayers," said Moghadam.

Meanwhile, as parties hammer out the potential date and venue for the next US-Iran talks, several countries issued a joint statement on Lebanon.

Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Sierra Leone and Switzerland said that they continued to be "deeply concerned" by the humanitarian situation and displacement crisis in the country.

Israel and Lebanon are currently holding direct talks at the ambassador level at the US State Department in Washington.

Contact the writers at jan@chinadaily.com.cn