Iran War: 1)(Updated) Iran reopens Strait of Hormuz, but Trump says blockade on Iranian ships and ports will stay in force; 2)(Updated) US military says it will blockade Iranian ports after ceasefire talks ended without agreement; 3)trump threatens Strait of Hormuz blockade after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks end without agreement; 4)(Updated) Historic U.S.-Iran direct talks begin in Pakistan as war’s fragile ceasefire holds
1)(Updated) Iran reopens Strait of Hormuz, but Trump says blockade on Iranian ships and ports will stay in force
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Kareem Chehayab, Abby Sewell, and Melanie Lidman, April 17, 2026
Oil tumbles 10% after Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz
Iran said Friday it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels, but President Donald Trump said the American blockade on Iranian ships and ports “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that the crucial waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil is shipped was now fully open to commercial vessels, as a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to hold.
Trump initially celebrated, posting on social media that Iran announced the strait “is fully open and ready for full passage.” But minutes later, he issued another post saying the U.S. Navy’s blockade would continue “UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE.”
The president also said Iran, with help from the U.S., is working to remove all mines from strait.
Trump imposed the blockade earlier this week after Iran restricted traffic through the strait due to fighting in Lebanon, which Iran claimed to be a breach of the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire reached between the U.S., Israel and Iran.
At the time, Trump said the blockade would enforce an “all or none” policy in hopes of pressuring Iran to reopen the strait.
The president’s decision to continue the blockade despite Iran’s announcement appeared aimed at sustaining pressure on Tehran as the fate of the two-week ceasefire reached last week remains uncertain. Direct talks between the U.S. and Iran last weekend were inconclusive, as the two nations differed over Iran’s nuclear program and other sticking points.
Truce in Lebanon could help US-Iran peace efforts
Oil prices fell on hopes of a deal. The head of the International Energy Agency had warned that energy shocks could get worse if the strait did not reopen. Iran closed the crucial waterway shortly after the war began.
The truce in Lebanon offered a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and could clear one major obstacle to a deal between Iran and the United States and Israel to end weeks of devastating war. But it was unclear whether the militant group would recognize a deal it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the U.S. from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war. The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether the prohibition spans both offensive and defensive strikes.
Celebrations in Beirut
Meanwhile in Beirut, barrages of gunshots rang out across the Lebanese capital as residents fired into the air just after midnight to celebrate the beginning of the truce. Displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to attempt to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon said Friday they had not observed any airstrikes since midnight, but accused the Israeli military of violating airspace and of artillery shelling in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. According to the agreement shared by the State Department, Israel can act in self-defense against imminent attacks but cannot carry out offensive operations against southern Lebanon.
Trump heralded the deal a “historic day for Lebanon,” as he expressed confidence the war with Iran would soon end.
“I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly,” Trump said in a Las Vegas speech. “It should be ending pretty soon.”
An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking the current ceasefire deal with strikes on Lebanon. Israel said that deal did not cover Lebanon.
Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension of the ceasefire.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.
Israel says it will keep troops in Lebanon
Israel’s hard-line Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Friday that Israel plans to respect the ceasefire even though attempts to completely disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon are “not yet complete.” Katz said Israel would continue to hold all the places it is currently stationed, including a buffer zone extending 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Israel into southern Lebanon. He said many homes in the area would be destroyed and Lebanese residents will not return to the area.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but also said Israeli troops would not withdraw.
Israeli forces have engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area as they pushed into southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a “security zone.”
“That is where we are, and we are not leaving,” he said.
Hezbollah has said Lebanese people have “the right to resist” Israeli occupation of their land and that their actions “will be determined based on how developments unfold.”
The U.S. State Department said that according to the agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself “at any time, against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.” But otherwise, Israel “will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, and other state targets.”
Trump announced the agreement as a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, but a Hezbollah official said the ceasefire was a result of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Israel and Hezbollah have fought several wars and have been fighting on and off since the day after the start of the Gaza war. Israel and Lebanon reached a deal to end that war in November 2024, but Israel has kept up near-daily strikes in what it says is an effort to prevent the Iran-backed militant group from regrouping. That escalated into another invasion after Hezbollah again began firing missiles at Israel in response to its war on Iran.
Flurry of diplomacy led up to Lebanon ceasefire
The agreement came after a meeting between Israel’s and Lebanon’s ambassadors in Washington and a flurry of subsequent phone calls from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a White House official.
They were the first direct diplomatic talks between the two countries in decades. Hezbollah had opposed direct talks between Lebanon and Israel.
Trump spoke Wednesday evening with Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rubio then called Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, who got on board. Trump then spoke with Aoun, and again with Netanyahu.
The State Department worked with both governments to formulate a memorandum of understanding for the truce.
Pakistan army chief meets with Iranian parliament speaker
Pakistan’s army chief met Thursday with Iran’s parliament speaker as part of efforts to press for an extension to a ceasefire that has paused almost seven weeks of war between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.
Even as the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained the ceasefire, regional officials reported progress, telling AP the United States and Iran had an “in-principle agreement” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
Mediators are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.
Trump suggested the ceasefire could be extended.
“If we’re close to a deal, would I extend?” Trump said in an exchange with reporters. “Yeah, I would do that.”
___ Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Ben Finley in Washington, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.
2)(Updated) US military says it will blockade Iranian ports after ceasefire talks ended without agreement
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Munir Ahmed, Josh Boak, Sam Metz, Samy Magdy, April 12, 2026
President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would swiftly begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement.
U.S. Central Command announced that it will blockade all Iranian ports beginning Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran.
CENTCOM said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.” It said it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump wants to weaken Iran’s key leverage in the war after demanding that it reopen the strait to all global traffic on the waterway that was responsible for 20% of global oil shipping before fighting began.
Traffic in the Strait has been limited even in the days since the ceasefire. Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire.
A U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets. “It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is,” Trump told Fox News.
Trump said on social media that he told the Navy to “seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” He said other nations would be involved but did not name them.
Freedom of peaceful navigation is a basic principle of international maritime trade.
Iran says ‘if you fight, we will fight’
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later said the strait remained under Iran’s “full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would get a “forceful response,” two semi-official Iranian news agencies reported.
During the 21-hour talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran denied it.
Trump’s plan to use the Navy to block the strait is unrealistic and he will have to concede on some issues with Iran, said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London. “There isn’t any tool in the toolbox in terms of the military lever that he could use to get his way,” Krieg said.
Trump said Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the talks’ failure. In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike civilian infrastructure.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side, addressed Trump in a new statement on his return to Iran: “If you fight, we will fight.”
No word on what happens after ceasefire expires
The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Neither indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon,” said Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side.
Iranian negotiators could not agree to all U.S. “red lines,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe positions on the record. These included Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon, ending uranium enrichment, dismantling major enrichment facilities and allowing retrieval of its highly enriched uranium, along with opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels.
Iranian officials said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach. Qalibaf, who noted progress in negotiations, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue in the coming days. Iran said it was open to continuing dialogue, state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign minister of Oman, located on the Strait of Hormuz’s southern coast, called for parties to “make painful concessions.” The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “emphasized his readiness” to help bring about a diplomatic settlement in a call with Iran’s president.
Iran’s nuclear program is a key sticking point
Iran’s nuclear program was at the center of tensions long before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,055 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and damaged infrastructure in half a dozen countries.
Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insists on its right to a civilian nuclear program. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump later pulled the U.S. out of, took well over a year of negotiations. Experts say Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.
An Iranian diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of closed-door talks, denied that negotiations had failed over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Inside Iran, there was new exhaustion and anger after months of unrest that began with nationwide protests against economic issues and then political ones, followed by weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
“We have never sought war. But if they try to win what they failed to win on the battlefield through talks, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.
Elsewhere in the region, airstrikes calmed over the past day except in Lebanon.
More questions as Israel presses ahead in Lebanon
Iran’s 10-point proposal for the talks called for a halt to Israeli strikes on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has said the ceasefire did not apply there, but Iran and Pakistan said it did.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited parts of southern Lebanon under Israeli control on Sunday, for the first time since the current fighting. Attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside the ground invasion renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the war’s opening days.
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite their lack of official relations. Israel wants Lebanon to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people, according to the Health Ministry.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were killed Sunday in Maaroub village near the coastal city of Tyre.
___ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Boak from Miami and Magdy from Cairo. E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Brian Melley in London, Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.
3)Trump threatens Strait of Hormuz blockade after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks end without agreement
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Munir Ahmed, Josh Boak, Sam Metz, Samy Magdy, April 12, 2026
President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would swiftly begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement.
U.S. Central Command announced that it will blockade all Iranian ports beginning Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran.
CENTCOM said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.” It said it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump wants to weaken Iran’s key leverage in the war after demanding that it reopen the strait to all global traffic on the waterway that was responsible for 20% of global oil shipping before fighting began.
Traffic in the Strait has been limited even in the days since the ceasefire. Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire.
A U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets. “It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is,” Trump told Fox News.
Trump said on social media that he told the Navy to “seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” He said other nations would be involved but did not name them.
Freedom of peaceful navigation is a basic principle of international maritime trade.
Iran says ‘if you fight, we will fight’
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later said the strait remained under Iran’s “full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would get a “forceful response,” two semi-official Iranian news agencies reported.
During the 21-hour talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran denied it.
Trump’s plan to use the Navy to block the strait is unrealistic and he will have to concede on some issues with Iran, said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London. “There isn’t any tool in the toolbox in terms of the military lever that he could use to get his way,” Krieg said.
Trump said Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the talks’ failure. In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike civilian infrastructure.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side, addressed Trump in a new statement on his return to Iran: “If you fight, we will fight.”
No word on what happens after ceasefire expires
The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Neither indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon,” said Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side.
Iranian negotiators could not agree to all U.S. “red lines,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe positions on the record. These included Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon, ending uranium enrichment, dismantling major enrichment facilities and allowing retrieval of its highly enriched uranium, along with opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels.
Iranian officials said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach. Qalibaf, who noted progress in negotiations, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue in the coming days. Iran said it was open to continuing dialogue, state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign minister of Oman, located on the Strait of Hormuz’s southern coast, called for parties to “make painful concessions.” The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “emphasized his readiness” to help bring about a diplomatic settlement in a call with Iran’s president.
Iran’s nuclear program is a key sticking point
Trump threatens Strait of Hormuz blockade after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks end without agreement
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press
By Munir Ahmed, Josh Boak, Sam Metz and Samy Magdy, April 12, 2026
President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement or next diplomatic steps in sight.
In his first public comments after the 21-hour talks, Trump sought to eliminate Iran’s key source of leverage in the war by exerting strategic control over the waterway that was responsible for the shipping of 20% of global oil supplies before fighting began.
A U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets. It was not immediately clear how it might be carried out, but Trump told Fox News the goal was to ensure all ships could transit: “It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is.”
Trump said he has “instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” Other nations would be involved in the blockade, he said, but did not name them.
Freedom of peaceful navigation is a basic principle of international maritime trade, but Iran has asserted control of the strait.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later said the strait remained under Iran’s “full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would get a “forceful response,” two semi-official Iranian news agencies reported.
During the talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran denied that.
Trump stressed that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the talks’ failure, and the U.S. was ready to “finish up” Iran at the “appropriate moment.” In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike civilian infrastructure and said he was fine with his widely criticized threat before the ceasefire that a “whole civilization will die tonight.”
No word on what happens after ceasefire expires.
The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Both delegations later left Islamabad.
Neither indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22. Both said their positions were clear and blamed the other.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side, said afterward.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.” Iranian officials earlier said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue in the coming days. Iran said it was open to continuing the dialogue, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign minister of Oman, located on the Strait of Hormuz’s southern coast, called for parties to “make painful concessions.” The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “emphasized his readiness” to help bring about a diplomatic settlement in a call with Iran’s president.
Iran’s nuclear program is a key sticking point
Iran’s nuclear program was at the center of tensions long before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,055 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen countries.
Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insisted on its right to a civilian nuclear program. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump later pulled the U.S. out of, took well over a year of negotiations. Experts say Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.
An Iranian diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of closed-door talks, denied that negotiations had failed over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “Iran is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, but it has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” the official said.
Inside Iran, there was new exhaustion and anger after months of unrest that began with nationwide protests against economic issues and then political ones, which turned into weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
“We have never sought war. But if they try to win what they failed to win on the battlefield through talks, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.
Elsewhere in the region, reported airstrikes calmed over the past day except in Lebanon.
More questions as Israel presses ahead in Lebanon
Iran’s 10-point proposal for the talks explicitly called for a halt to Israeli strikes on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has said the ceasefire did not apply in Lebanon, but Iran and Pakistan said it did.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited parts of southern Lebanon under Israeli control on Sunday, for the first time since the current round of fighting.
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite their lack of official relations. Israel wants Lebanon’s government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Though Israel’s strikes have calmed in Beirut, attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside the ground invasion it renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the war’s opening days.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were killed Sunday in Maaroub village near the coastal city of Tyre.
___ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Boak from Miami and Magdy from Cairo. E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis contributed.
4)(Updated) Historic U.S.-Iran direct talks begin in Pakistan as war’s fragile ceasefire holds
Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press, April 11, 2026
By Munir Ahmed, E. Eduardo Castillo, Samy Magdy And Cara Anna,
The United States and Iran began historic face-to-face negotiations Saturday in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced, as the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets entered its seventh week.
The White House confirmed the direct nature of the talks, a rare instance of high-level engagement, and said they were ongoing as of 10 p.m. local time. Later, there was no sign of talks having ended as midnight passed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said two destroyers transited the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran’s state media, however, said the joint military command denied that.
The U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance and the Iranian one led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf discussed with Pakistan how to advance the ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose health ministry said the death toll has surpassed 2,000.
Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the most direct U.S. contact had been in 2013 when President Barack Obama called newly elected President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. The most recent highest-level meetings were between Secretary of State John Kerry and counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif during negotiations over the program.
Now talks feature Vance, a reluctant defender of the war who has little diplomatic experience and warned Iran not to “try and play us,” and Qalibaf, a former commander with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard who has issued some of Iran’s most fiery statements since fighting began.
Iran sets ‘red lines’ including compensation for strikes
Iran’s state-run news agency said the three-party talks began after Iranian preconditions, including a reduction in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, were met.
Iran’s delegation told state television it had presented “red lines” in meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, including compensation for damage caused by U.S.-Israeli strikes that launched the war on Feb. 28 and releasing Iran’s frozen assets.
The war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring.
Reflecting the high stakes, officials from the region said Chinese, Egyptian, Saudi and Qatari officials were in Islamabad to indirectly facilitate talks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
In Tehran, residents told The Associated Press they were skeptical yet hopeful after weeks of airstrikes left destruction across their country of some 93 million people.
“Peace alone is not enough for our country because we’ve been hit very hard, there have been huge costs,” 62-year-old Amir Razzai Far said.
In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” fuelling the war.
US sending forces to help mine-clearing on the strait
Ahead of the talks, President Donald Trump accused Iran of using the Strait of Hormuz for extortion, and told reporters Friday it would be opened “with or without them.”
Iran’s closure of the strait has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war. Around a fifth of the world’s traded oil had typically passed through on over 100 ships a day. Only 12 have been recorded transiting since the ceasefire.
On Saturday, Trump said on social media that the U.S. had begun “clearing out” the strait.
“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon,” U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper later said. The U.S. statement about the destroyers added: “Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said Tehran was entering negotiations with “deep distrust” after strikes on Iran during previous talks. Araghchi, part of Iran’s delegation in Pakistan, said Saturday that his country was prepared to retaliate if attacked again.
Iran’s 10-point proposal ahead of the talks called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the Strait of Hormuz. It included ending fighting against Iran’s “regional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.
The United States’ 15-point proposal includes restricting Iran’s nuclear program and reopening the strait.
Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations
Meanwhile, Israel pressed ahead with strikes in Lebanon after saying there is no ceasefire there. Iran and Pakistan have disagreed. The Lebanese state-run news agency reported at least three people killed.
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Friday, after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite the countries lack of official relations.
But as thousands in Lebanon protested the planned negotiations, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had postponed a planned trip to Washington “in light of the current internal circumstances.” It was not immediately clear what that meant for talks.
Israel wants Lebanon’s government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much like was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But it is unclear whether Lebanon’s army can confiscate weapons from the militant group, which has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.
Hezbollah joined the war in support of Iran in the opening days. Israel followed with airstrikes and a ground invasion.
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
___Castillo reported from Beijing, Magdy from Cairo and Anna from Lowville, New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed.