US Vice President JD Vance landed in Islamabad on Saturday afternoon to take part in peace talks with Iran. The talks, mediated by Pakistan, are aimed at achieving a lasting resolution to the six-week war, which has paused thanks to a fragile ceasefire.
Vance was joined in Islamabad by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. On the other hand, Iran are represented by Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, a veteran of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and Central Bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.
Track LIVE Updates from US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad
Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir, foreign affairs minister Ishaq Dar, and interior minister Mohsin Naqvi received Vance and his delegation. The same trio had also received the Iranian leaders earlier on Saturday morning.
Upon his arrival in Islamabad, Ghalibaf said they had come to Pakistan for talks in good faith, but without trust in the US. “We have goodwill, but we do not have trust,” Ghalibaf told reporters after arriving in Islamabad, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. “In the upcoming negotiations, if the American side is prepared for a genuine agreement and to grant the rights of the Iranian nation, they will see readiness for an agreement from us as well.”
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There is no clarity on whether these talks are going to be direct of indirect. AFP reported that the talks are expected to be indirect with the two delegations sitting in separate rooms with Pakistani officials shuttling proposals between them, mirroring the format used in earlier Oman-mediated rounds. But Dawn reports that talks will be the ‘first direct high-level engagement between Washington and Tehran since 1979’.
Two of the key talking points during the talks will be the Strait of Hormuz and Israeli strike in Lebanon. While President Trump has asked for an immediate opening of Hormuz, Iran has countered it with demand of control over the narrow passage that sees the passage of energy supplies.
Before arriving in Pakistan, Ghalibaf stressed on social media that a ceasefire in Lebanon is one measure that “must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.” The other is the “release of Iran’s blocked assets,” he added, without being more specific.
