Updated ,first published
US Vice President JD Vance flew to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday for high-level talks aimed at ending the six-week war with Iran, despite Tehran’s earlier insistence that talks cannot begin without commitments on Lebanon and sanctions.
The US delegation, led by Vance and including President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived in Islamabad after a refueling stop in Paris. The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, arrived on Friday.
Reuters reported on Saturday evening (AEST) that the US had agreed to release frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks.
The source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that freezing the assets “is directly related to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”, which is expected to be a key issue in the talks.
The source welcomed the move as a sign of “seriousness” in reaching an agreement with the US at talks in Islamabad.
The United States has not made any public comment on the matter.
Ghalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to open Iranian assets and a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have killed nearly 2,000 people since the fighting began in March. He said negotiations will not start until those promises are fulfilled.
Israel and the United States have said the conflict in Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire, while Tehran insists it is.
Ghalibaf said separately that Iran is ready to reach an agreement if Washington delivers what he called a genuine agreement and gives Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.
The White House did not immediately comment on Iran’s demands, but Trump posted on social media that the only reason the Iranians are alive is to negotiate a deal.
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they don’t have a card, other than the short-term usurpation of the Earth using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” He said.
Vance, speaking on his way to Pakistan, said he expects positive results. “If they try to play us, then they will find the negotiating team unacceptable,” he said, adding that Trump had given the team “very clear instructions”.
Preliminary discussions have been held separately with Pakistani officials and advance teams from both sides, sources in Islamabad said.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said 70 members from Tehran including experts in economic, security and political affairs, media workers and assistants. About 100 members of the US advance team were in the city, a Pakistani government source said.
“We are positive,” said another Pakistani source close to the discussions. Asked if the talks would end on Saturday, the source said: “It’s too early to say. They have orders to close the deal or walk away. So, it’s not fast. These talks are not on the clock.”
Islamabad was under an unprecedented blockade before the talks, with thousands of military personnel and army personnel on the streets.
“We have put in place multi-layered security for this incident, which is based on coordination, intelligence and constant monitoring for disruption and full control,” Pakistan’s junior interior minister, Talal Chaudhry, told Reuters.
In another move, China is preparing to transfer shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles known as MANPADs to Iran, CNN reported, citing unnamed US intelligence sources.
The network said there were indications that Beijing was working to transport the shipments through third countries to hide their origin. The US State Department, the White House and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war on Tuesday, which has halted US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran.
But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the world’s worst-ever disruption of energy supplies, or calmed the parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Fighting continues in Lebanon
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials said, amid conflicting reports about what the talks will be about.
The Lebanese president’s office said the two spoke on the phone on Friday and agreed to discuss declaring a ceasefire and setting a date for the start of bilateral talks under US mediation. But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would include the start of “formal peace talks” and that Israel has refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Israeli attacks continued in southern Lebanon on Friday. One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of the Lebanese government’s security forces, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.
Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rockets into northern Israeli cities in response. Hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched its biggest attack of the war, killing more than 350 people in surprise attacks on heavily populated areas, Lebanese authorities said.
Tehran’s agenda at the talks also includes demands for major new deals, including an end to sanctions that have crippled its economy for years, and recognition of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a major shift in regional power.
Hormuz sticking point
Iranian ships were passing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained under siege.
Traffic in the strategic waterway has shown little sign of a significant pick-up since the moratorium began, with ship owners awaiting clarification on their status. A large Russian-flagged ship sailed through the sea channel Thursday evening, revealing ship tracking data, but that was a rare example.
Energy supply disruptions have fueled inflation and slowed the global economy, and the impact is expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the Strait.
Continued sanctions have kept pressure on oil prices. U.S. crude swung between losses and gains throughout the session as traders set their positions over the weekend to remain neutral ahead of Saturday’s talks. Prices settled below $US97 ($137) a barrel.
The tough stance taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the talks followed a defiant message from the new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, on Thursday.
Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the first day of the war, said Iran would demand reparations for all wartime damage.
“We will certainly not punish the criminal invaders who attacked our country,” he said.
Although Trump has declared victory and reduced Iran’s military capabilities, the war has not achieved many of his initial goals: to deny Iran the ability to attack its neighbors, dismantle its nuclear program, and make it easier for its people to overthrow their government.
Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of hitting its neighbors and stockpiles of more than 400 kilograms of enriched uranium close to the level needed to make a bomb. Its clerical rulers, who had faced a popular uprising a few months earlier, withstood the onslaught without a sign of organized resistance.
Reuters, Bloomberg
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