US-Iran Talks In Pakistan: Strait Of Hormuz Crisis And Ceasefire Tensions Dominate High-Stakes Negotiations

U.S. and Iranian officials held their most significant talks in decades on Saturday in Pakistan, aiming to bring an end to their six-week conflict, as President Donald Trump said efforts had begun to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

First Direct Meeting in Over a Decade

The meeting in Islamabad marked the first direct engagement between the two countries in over ten years and their highest-level interaction since the Iranian Revolution.

The Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy shipments that Iran has effectively restricted, remains central to ongoing negotiations, especially during the two-week ceasefire agreed upon last week.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the waterway remains among the main points of “serious disagreement” in talks between Iranian and U.S. delegations in Islamabad.

The U.S. military said two of its warships had passed through the strait and conditions were being set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any U.S. ships had transited the waterway.

Trump Announces Mine-Clearing Efforts

“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted on social media.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner flew in on Saturday and met Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for two hours before a rest, according to a source from mediator Pakistan.

The Iranian delegation arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the U.S. bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said.

“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” another Pakistani source said in reference to the first round of talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict.

Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews said talks would resume later on Saturday night or Sunday.

Pope Leo, in an impassioned appeal on Saturday, urged world leaders to end what he called the “madness of war.”

DIFFERENT DEMANDS

The war has sent global oil prices soaring, killed thousands of people and led to strikes on Gulf Arab states.

Before the talks began, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the U.S. had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks. But a U.S. official denied it.

As well as the release of assets abroad, Tehran is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz, payment of war reparations and a ceasefire across the region including in Lebanon, according to Iranian state TV and officials.

Trump’s stated goals have varied during the campaign, but as a minimum he wants free passage for global shipping through the strait and the crippling of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme to ensure it cannot produce an atomic bomb.

U.S. ally Israel, which joined the February 28 attacks on Iran that launched the war, has also been bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and says that conflict is not part of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire.

Mutual Distrust Is High

“We will negotiate with our finger on the trigger,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on state TV.

“While we are open to talks,we are also fully aware of the lack of trust; therefore, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.”

Tehran’s agenda includes aiming to collect transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

The biggest-ever disruption there has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.

Nevertheless, three Liberian- and Chinese-flagged supertankers passed through the strait on Saturday, shipping data showed, marking what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the ceasefire.

DOZENS DEAD IN LEBANON

More than 90 people were killed in Israeli air strikes across Lebanon on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said, bringing the war’s death toll to 2,020 people, including 165 children, nearly 250 women and 85 medics.

Hezbollah said it had conducted several military operations against Israeli positions on Saturday, both within Lebanese territory and in northern Israel.

Israeli and Lebanese officials plan talks in the U.S. on Tuesday.

For the U.S.-Iran talks, Islamabad, a city of more than 2 million people, was locked down with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

Pakistan’s mediating role is a remarkable transformation remarkable transformation for a nation that was a diplomatic outcast a year ago.

“This was a world war that Pakistan stopped. It played a big role and we should appreciate it,” Nasir Khan Abbasi, a dry cleaner, said at a market in Islamabad. “I really like this and I feel great that Pakistan’s name is shining in the world.”

(With Inputs from Reuters)

Also Read: US Navy Moves to Secure Strait of Hormuz, Begins Process to Clear Sea Mines

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