Iran’s foreign minister leaves without meeting U.S. envoys, Pakistani officials say
ISLAMABAD — Iran’s foreign minister left Pakistan late Saturday, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press, even before U.S. envoys arrived for indirect talks on the fragile ceasefire.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was accompanied to an airport, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. He met with Pakistan Army Chief Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over what he called Iran’s red lines for negotiations, and said Tehran would engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until an outcome is achieved.”
It is unclear when President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to arrive in Islamabad. The White House declined to comment.
An indefinite ceasefire has halted most fighting, but the economic consequences are deepening with global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials have openly questioned how they can trust the United States after negotiations last year and earlier this year over Tehran’s nuclear program ended with the latter being attacked by the United States and Israel.
Iran says negotiations will be indirect
PHOTOS: Iranian foreign minister leaves without meeting US envoys, Pakistani officials say
Islamabad was virtually blocked before the expected talks. Pakistan has been trying to bring the United States and Iran back to the table since Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire, honoring Islamabad’s demand for more diplomatic contacts.
The White House said Friday that Trump would send Witkoff and Kushner to meet with Araghchi. But Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the negotiations would be indirect and that Pakistani officials would convey messages.
The first round of talks in Pakistan, led on the American side by Vice President JD Vance, lasted more than 20 hours and took place face-to-face. These are the highest-level direct talks between the long-standing adversaries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Araghchi and Trump’s envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on February 27, but left without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States launched war.
The straits standoff continues
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is still nearly 50% higher than at the start of the war due to Iran’s control of 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, while the United States maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could place mines.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday his country would send minesweeping ships to the Mediterranean to help remove Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities end.
The pressure on shipments passing through the strait has spilled over into global maritime trade, including through the Panama Canal, almost halfway around the world.
Also on Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran International Airport for the first time since the war began with US and Israeli strikes two months ago. The flights were scheduled to depart for Istanbul, Oman’s capital Muscat, and the Saudi city of Medina, according to Iranian state television. Iran partially reopened its airspace earlier this month due to the ceasefire.
A growing toll despite the maintenance of ceasefires
Since the start of the war, authorities say at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and more than 2,490 people in Lebanon, where renewed fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah erupted two days after the start of Iran’s war.
Additionally, 23 people were killed in Israel and more than a dozen in the Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 American troops in the region and six members of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon were killed.
Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah for three weeks. Hezbollah did not participate in the diplomacy negotiated by Washington.
