ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – APRIL 11: U.S. Vice President JD Vance (C) walks with Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Military Employees Discipline Marshall Asim Munir (L), and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and International Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officers on April 11, 2026 at Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photograph by Jacquelyn Martin – Pool/Getty Photographs)
Pool | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
The USA and Iran started peace talks Saturday in Pakistan because the struggle entered its seventh week.
The negotiations search to cement a two-week ceasefire that started Tuesday however which has come beneath pressure as Iran continues to dam most delivery site visitors by way of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil and gasoline provides. Tehran additionally reiterated an inventory of preconditions for the talks.
Pakistan confirmed the arrival of a delegation of Iranian negotiators forward of talks on Saturday with the U.S. to finish the six-week-old struggle that Washington and Tel Aviv have led towards Tehran.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s staff landed in Islamabad early Saturday and was met by U.S. Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
On Friday, Vance advised reporters he thinks the negotiations shall be “constructive,” whereas warning Iran to not “play us.”
Pakistan’s overseas ministry mentioned the Iranian delegation led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and International Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived within the capital, Islamabad, late Friday.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and International Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar “expressed the hope that events would have interaction constructively, and reiterated Pakistan’s need to proceed facilitating the events in the direction of reaching [a] lasting and sturdy resolution to the battle,” Pakistan’s overseas ministry mentioned in a publish on X.
The assembly comes amid heightened tensions over conflicting experiences in regards to the Strait of Hormuz.
A U.S. official advised Axios that a number of U.S. Navy ships had crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. However Iranian state TV and a Pakistani supply denied that any U.S. vessel had handed by way of the waterway, in response to Reuters.
Earlier within the day, a senior Iranian supply advised Reuters the U.S. had agreed to launch frozen belongings held in Qatar and different overseas banks, however a U.S. official instantly denied the report.
In the meantime, Trump mentioned the U.S. army has began to clear the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that every one of Iran’s minelaying ships have been sunk.
“We’re now beginning the method of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a Reality Social publish, including that “all 28” of Iran’s “mine dropper boats are additionally mendacity on the backside of the ocean.”
Iranian preconditions
However query marks grasp over the ceasefire and the end result of the talks.
Iran’s Tasnim information company mentioned on Saturday that Tehran has offered negotiators with 4 “non-negotiable situations” to mediators in Islamabad.
They embrace: “full sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, full struggle reparations by the aggressor, unconditional launch of blocked belongings, and a sturdy ceasefire throughout the complete West-Asia Area,” Tasnim mentioned on its X account.
Ghalibaf warned Friday that the scheduled negotiations to finish the struggle with the U.S. can’t start except Israel halts assaults on Lebanon and except the U.S. releases Tehran’s frozen belongings.
Ghalibaf issued the ultimatum after the American delegation led by Vance left for Islamabad to attend the talks.
“Two of the measures mutually agreed upon between the events have but to be carried out: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the discharge of Iran’s blocked belongings previous to the graduation of negotiations,” Ghalibaf mentioned in an X publish.
“These two issues have to be fulfilled earlier than negotiations start,” he wrote.
Iranian negotiators met with Pakistani officers on Saturday, however not but with U.S. delegates, MS Now reported, citing two members of the delegation from Tehran.
“Talks won’t begin till a ceasefire is agreed in Lebanon,” the Iranian delegation members advised MS Now.
Trump’s frustration with Iran
In the meantime, Trump has expressed frustration with Iran persevering with to dam most delivery site visitors by way of the Strait of Hormuz.
The strait is the world’s most very important delivery route for oil. Earlier than the struggle, 20% of the world’s crude was transported by way of that passage.
In an announcement Tuesday night, Trump mentioned that the U.S. would comply with a two-week suspension of hostilities topic to Iran agreeing to a whole and rapid reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
However since then, vessel site visitors by way of the strait stays practically as tightly throttled because it has been for the reason that struggle started on Feb. 28.
In a Reality Social publish on Thursday night, Trump fumed, “There are experiences that Iran is charging charges to tankers going by way of the Hormuz Strait — They higher not be and, if they’re, they higher cease now!”
Iran “is doing a really poor job, dishonorable some would say, of permitting Oil to undergo the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote in a follow-up publish. “That’s not the settlement we now have!”
— CNBC’s Terri Cullen, Reuters and the Related Press contributed to this report
