Iran's foreign minister leaves Islamabad without meeting US delegation, Pakistani officials say
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Iran's foreign minister left Pakistan on Saturday evening, two Pakistani officials told the Associated Press, ahead of any sign that US envoys had arrived for informal talks on a ceasefire.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was seen leaving the airport, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. He has met Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over what he called Iran's red lines in talks, and said Tehran would cooperate with Pakistan's mediation efforts “until a result is achieved.”
It was not clear when US President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were supposed to arrive in Islamabad. The White House declined to comment.
The open-ended ceasefire has halted many wars, but the economic fallout is growing with global exports of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizers and other goods disrupted by the imminent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials have openly questioned how they can trust the US after negotiations last year and earlier this year over Tehran's nuclear program ended with US and Israeli strikes.
America's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, will represent their country in peace talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad.
Iran said the talks would be indirect
Islamabad had been on the verge of a shutdown ahead of the much-anticipated talks. Pakistan has been trying to bring the US and Iran back to the table since Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire, honoring Islamabad's request for more contacts.
The White House on Friday said Trump was sending Witkoff and Kushner to meet with Araghchi. But Iran's foreign ministry said any talks would be indirect and Pakistani officials would convey messages.
The first round of talks in Pakistan, led on the US side by Vice President JD Vance, lasted more than 20 hours and were face-to-face, the highest-level direct talks between long-time enemies since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Iran seized two container ships after firing on three vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Iranian officials have also criticized ongoing peace talks with the US as 'hypocritical' and 'empty.'
Araghchi and two of Trump's envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on February 27 on Tehran's nuclear program, but walked away without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started a war against Iran.
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt told Fox News that the president had decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear from the Iranian people.”
“We've seen some progress on the Iranian side over the last few days,” Leavitt said. He did not give details about what the American officials heard.
The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz continues
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is still about 50 percent higher than when the war began, thanks to Iran's hold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil passes in peacetime.
Iran has attacked three ships this week, and the US maintains an embargo on Iranian ports. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that may be laying mines.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday that his country is sending minesweepers to the Mediterranean to help remove Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict ends.
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused 'the biggest threat to energy security in history,' said Fatih Birol, director general of the International Energy Agency. Ryan Cummings of the Stanford Institute for Economy Policymaking says the shutdown so far is equivalent to a billion barrels of oil out of the economy.
The port's shipping density has been absorbed by global maritime trade, including the Panama Canal almost halfway around the world.
And on Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran's international airport for the first time since the war began with US and Israeli strikes two months ago. The flights were supposed to depart for Istanbul, the Omani capital Muscat and the Saudi city of Medina, according to Iran's state television. Iran reopened its airspace earlier this month as a result of the ceasefire.
The number is increasing as the fighting is stopped
Since the start of the war, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,490 people in Lebanon, where fresh fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah broke out two days into the war, according to authorities.
In addition, 23 people were killed in Israel and more than a dozen in the Gulf Arab countries. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US personnel in the entire region were killed.
Trump announced on Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend the ceasefire by three weeks. Hezbollah did not participate in Washington's diplomacy.
