US, Iran teams in Pakistan for peace talks but doubts emerge over Lebanon, sanctions

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ISLAMABAD – Senior US and Iranian leaders were in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday for negotiations to end their six-week war, though Tehran has cast doubt on the talks, saying it cannot proceed without commitments on Lebanon and sanctions.

The US delegation, led by Vice-President J.D. Vance and including President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, landed in two US air force planes at an air base in Islamabad early on April 11, where they were received by Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived on April 10.

These will be the highest-level US-Iran talks since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the first official face-to-face negotiations between the two sides since 2015, when the two sides reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Mr Trump scrapped the nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term in office. That same year, Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war six weeks ago, banned further direct talks between US and Iranian officials.

Mr Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have killed nearly 2,000 people since the start of the fighting in March. He said talks would not start until those pledges are fulfilled.

Iran’s state broadcaster said the Iranian delegation would meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif around noon (3pm, Singapore time) to determine the timing and manner of “possible negotiations”.

Israel and the US have said the campaign against militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon is not part of the agreed ceasefire.

Mr Qalibaf said separately that Iran was ready to reach a deal if Washington offers what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

While there was no immediate comment from the White House, Mr Trump said in a social media post that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realise they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said.

Mr Vance said he expected a positive outcome as he headed to Pakistan, but added: “If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Preliminary discussions have been separately held by Pakistani officials with advance teams from both sides, sources in Islamabad said.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said these included 70 members from Tehran, including technical specialists in economic, security and political fields as well as media personnel and support staff.

About 100 members of an advance US team were in the city, a Pakistani government source said.

“We’re very positive,” said another Pakistani source close to the discussions.

Asked if talks would end on April 11, the source said: “Too early to say. They have instructions to close a deal or walk away. Hence not in a rush. These talks are not on the clock.”

Islamabad was under an unprecedented lockdown on April 11, with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets ahead of what Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “make-or-break” talks.

“We have deployed multi-layer security for this event, which is based on coordination, intelligence and constant monitoring for zero disruption and full control,” Pakistan’s Junior Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry told Reuters.

Mr Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the six-week war on April 7, just hours before a deadline after which the US president had threatened to destroy Iran’s civilisation.

The ceasefire has halted US and Israeli air strikes on Iran. But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed a parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Mr Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Ms Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will hold talks in Washington on April 14, Israeli and Lebanese officials said. But the two sides have issued conflicting statements on what the talks would cover.

Lebanon’s presidency said the two had held a phone call on April 10 and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks under U.S. mediation.

But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations”, and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes continued across southern Lebanon on April 10.

One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of Lebanon’s state security forces, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.

Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rocket salvos at northern Israeli towns in response.

Lebanese authorities say at least 1,953 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2.

Tehran’s agenda at the talks also includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgment of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran’s ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on April 10, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.

The hard line taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on April 8.

Mr Khamenei - who has yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the war’s first day - said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

“We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country,” he said.

Although Mr Trump has declared victory and degraded Iran’s military capabilities, the war has not achieved many of the aims he set out at the start: to deprive Iran of the ability to strike its neighbours, dismantle its nuclear programme, and make it easier for its people to overthrow their government.

Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of hitting its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400kg of uranium enriched near the level needed to make a bomb. Its clerical rulers, who faced a popular uprising just months ago, withstood the onslaught with no sign of organised opposition. REUTERS