Pakistan has been trying to get U.S. and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honoring Islamabad’s request for more time for diplomatic outreach.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad to deliver Tehran’s formal response to proposals previously conveyed by Pakistan’s Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.
While Araghchi confirmed that Iran is working on a new offer, he clarified that any discussions with the arriving U.S. delegation would remain indirect, with messages channeled through Pakistani intermediaries.
His ministry said that "no meeting is planned" between the Iranian diplomat and the U.S. delegation, and that Iran's "observations" would instead be conveyed through Pakistani officials acting as intermediaries.
President Donald Trump confirmed the move in a Reuters interview, stating that Iran is "making an offer" intended to satisfy U.S. demands regarding its nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House said Friday that Trump would send Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to meet with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Asked by Reuters what is needed to lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iran, Trump said: "I'd have to be able to answer that question later. I have to see what they're offering."
The current round of diplomacy follows a previous round of failed talks between Araghchi and the two Trump envoys in Geneva on February 27 over Tehran’s nuclear program. Although they walked away from the indirect talks without a finalized deal, both sides had scheduled follow-up technical negotiations in Vienna for March 2.
Israel and the United States launched their war on Iran the very next day, on February 28, torpedoing ongoing negotiations for the second time, once before in June 2025.
On Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president had decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out.”
“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt said. She did not offer any details about what U.S. officials were hearing.
Leavitt also noted that while Vice President JD Vance was not traveling initially, he remained "deeply involved" and was on standby to fly to Pakistan if the talks showed enough progress to necessitate his presence.
Iran has also downgraded its negotiating presence for this round compared to the previous high-level talks. In earlier sessions, Tehran was represented by a larger delegation and more senior officials including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
The latest effort to broker a deal comes as an indefinite ceasefire has paused most fighting, but economic fallout is still mounting with global energy shipments disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump extends the Jones Act waiver for 90 days
Separately, Friday, the White House said Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas.
He first announced a 60-day waiver in March in a move intended to stabilize energy prices and ease oil and gas shipments to the U.S. following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil passes in peacetime.
Iran has kept its restrictions on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the U.S. is maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, retreated on the news, vacillating between $103 a barrel and more than $107 — still nearly 50% higher than where it was on Feb. 28, when the war began.
The squeeze on shipments through the strait has rippled through global maritime trade flows, including through the Panama Canal nearly halfway around the world.
A growing toll even as ceasefires hold
The joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has killed at least 3,468 people, many of them civilians, with Trump at one point threatening that a "whole civilization will die" and be bombed "back to the Stone Age" unless Tehran immediately reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
Separate Israeli bombing in Lebanon has killed more than 2,490 people and displaced over one million Lebanese, according to authorities.
Additionally, more than a dozen have died in Gulf Arab states, fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has also sustained casualties. UNIFIL said Friday that an Indonesian peacekeeper died of wounds sustained in an attack on his base on March 29, raising to six — four Indonesians and two French — the number of force members killed since the war erupted.
Tensions linger in Lebanon despite extended truce
Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed six people on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said, despite Trump on Thursday announcing that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire in Israel's war on the country by three weeks.
Two people were killed in Wadi al-Hujair, two were killed in Touline, and one each in Srifa and Yater, all in southern Lebanon, the ministry said.
Earlier Friday, the Israeli army said it had killed six people in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, which saw intense fighting between invading Israeli forces and Hezbollah for days leading up to the April 17 ceasefire.
Lawmaker Ali Fayyad, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, characterized the occupation and continued Israeli "field actions", including assassinations, shelling, and village demolitions, as proof that the ceasefire is meaningless.
Hezbollah, which has asserted its right to retaliate to Israeli violations, has not participated in the diplomacy brokered by Washington, labeling direct talks between Beirut and Tel Aviv as a "free concession" and a "deceptive ploy".
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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