Iran’s top diplomat is expected to travel to Pakistan by this weekend for talks, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
The officials declined to provide any other details about Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s visit, other than to say he would be accompanied by a small government delegation and could arrive as soon as Friday.
Also on Friday, the White House said US President Donald Trump has issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas in the wake of the Iran War.
Mr Trump first announced a 60-day waiver in mid-March and the move has been seen as helping to stabilise energy prices and making it easier for more ships to travel to the US following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The post on social media by a White House press aide said: “New data compiled since the initial waiver was issued revealed that significantly more supply was able to reach US ports faster.”
Pakistan has been trying to restart ceasefire talks between Iran and the United States.
Tensions in the stand-off between the US and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz have intensified after Mr Trump ordered the American military to “shoot and kill” Iranian small boats in the key waterway.
Iran has also rejected Mr Trump’s claim there was a leadership rift in the Islamic Republic.
“In Iran there are no ‘hardliners’ or ‘moderates’. We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian and speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote in almost identical social media statements.
Since the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the first strike of the war on February 28, it has been unclear who in Iran wields ultimate authority over its collection of civilian figures and powerful generals who appear to be in charge.
.@POTUS: “What we’ve done with the blockade is amazing… We have complete control.” pic.twitter.com/PwB8ru9puX
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 23, 2026
A statement earlier on Friday said Mr Araghchi had spoken to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief.
Mr Araghchi’s statement said the men spoke about “regional developments and issues related to the ceasefire”, without elaborating.
Hours later, a statement on behalf of Mr Dar acknowledged the call, saying “both sides exchanged views on regional developments, the ceasefire, and ongoing diplomatic efforts being pursued by Islamabad in the context of US-Iran engagement.”
Pakistan has been trying to get American and Iranian officials back to the negotiating table in Islamabad, where they had hoped to have talks earlier this week that did not materialise.
Mr Trump also said on Thursday evening that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House.
It came as the UN peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, or Unifil, said a 31-year-old Indonesian peacekeeper had died at a Beirut hospital after he was critically wounded following a projectile explosion in his base in Adchit al-Qusayr, southern Lebanon, on March 29.
The stand-off between the US and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said peace negotiations between the United States and Iran are at risk of forging a “weaker” agreement than one struck a decade ago.
“If the talks are only about the nuclear (issue) and there are no nuclear experts around the table, then we will end up with an agreement that is weaker than the JCPoA was,” she said on Friday in Cyprus, referring to a 2015 deal struck during the Obama administration that Trump pulled the US out of in 2018.
Ms Kallas said if negotiators do not table Iran’s “missile programmes, their support to proxies, and also hybrid and cyber activities in Europe”, there is a possibility “we will end up with a more dangerous Iran”.
Meanwhile, a medical aid convoy has left Turkey for Iran, an official told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency on Friday.
The six trucks departed Van in eastern Turkey to pass through the Gurbulak border crossing, Van health director Muhammed Tosun said.
