By Umut Uras and Zaid Sabah
US Vice President J D Vance has arrived in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to lead the ceasefire negotiations, the highest-level talks with Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Before departure, he said: “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we are certainly willing to extend an open hand.”
High-profile Iranian officials have also arrived in Islamabad for the ceasefire talks with the US, including Tehran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry increased the number of people killed from Israeli attacks across the country on Wednesday to 357, warning that the death toll is not yet final as more victims are being found and identified.
The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors in the US held a phone call in first reported direct contact between the two countries, before ceasefire talks are expected to be held in the US next week.
Visit our live tracker for the latest casualty figures from across the region.
Araghchi tells German counterpart Iran enters talks with ‘complete distrust’
The Mehr news agency reports the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, during a telephone call that Iran enters the negotiations with US in “complete distrust”.
Araghchi said his nation “will fight with full authority to secure the interests and rights of the Iranian people,” citing repeated breaches of promise and “betrayals of diplomacy” by the US as the reason for this stance.
Iran has time on its side
Masood Akhtar, a former Pakistani air marshal, believes the US side’s priority is to get the Strait of Hormuz open at the talks and that is their goal at minimum.
“They also want to make sure that nuclear inspectors are able to visit the sites,” he told Al Jazeera from Islamabad, adding that Iran will not change its position on its key issues such as the nuclear issue and missile stockpiles.
The former military officer said Tehran might make concessions in negotiations over its support for its proxies in Lebanon and Yemen.
Akhtar thinks the Iranian side has “a slight upper edge and time on their side,” despite taking blows from the Israeli and US forces. He added that the US is “running out of time”.
Vance deployed as ‘the closer’ in high-stakes talks
By John Hendren
Reporting from Washington, DC
The presence of J D Vance elevates the negotiations.
Steve Whitcock and Jared Kushner had previously negotiated with the Iranians; they met Vance at the end of that red carpet, having travelled separately there, but from the administration’s perspective they didn’t get the job done, so Vance is being brought in as the closer, and he brings some special credentials here.
He is known as an isolationist; he is believed to have been against this war all along. One of the stronger voices for keeping the US out of foreign wars, he might seem more receptive to the Iranians he meets there, and he’s going to come there with some demands.
He said the president gave him very specific guidance on this. We don’t know what that guidance is, but I think we can presume, based on what Trump has been saying, that number one is to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
He might say the United States doesn’t really use that strait, but he knows better than anybody that if that strait is clogged up and Iran is able to hold up traffic, Americans pay those higher oil prices just as much as everyone else does.
This is in an unpopular war, and it’s driving up prices and inflation here in the United States. He wants to end that, so he needs an off-ramp.
He’s also going to want to stop Iran from getting closer to a nuclear weapon, so that’s going to mean ending any enrichment of uranium there, what he calls the nuclear dust.
So those would be the top priorities. It’s not clear whether there are other red lines, but it seems as if everything else would be negotiable.
Those are the two main things the administration is going in for, and they’re asking JD Vance to be the closer.
Iranian delegation departs for meeting with Pakistani PM
Iran’s ISNA news agency reports the Iranian delegation is set to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharif and his government officials are mediating the Iran-US ceasefire talks in Islamabad.
‘All eyes on Islamabad’ but GCC also wants concerns addressed
By Malik Traina
Reporting from Kuwait City, Kuwait
I think the GCC was extremely frustrated that this war happened to begin with.
They weren’t consulted by President Donald Trump and they had been warning – before the war – that if it was to escalate, it would have devastating impacts.
If this war was to end tomorrow, if this ceasefire holds and they come up with a solution tomorrow, it could still take months for the GCC to come up to normal capacity.
So the GCC have security concerns that they want addressed in these talks. They also want the Strait of Hormuz opened, and I think from their perspective, Lebanon is included in the ceasefire; they want Lebanon included in this ceasefire.
And there’s a feeling here that Israel will try to sabotage or derail these talks.
I think for the GCC, they want full implementation of the ceasefire, no more hostilities, to open the Strait of Hormuz, and they want their energy supplies to reach the global market.
This isn’t just a GCC issue.
What we’ve increasingly seen and what we now know is that the Gulf is extremely important for the entire global market.
All eyes will be on Islamabad but I think the GCC has some serious concerns that they want addressed in these talks.
List of key members of Iranian delegation
The confirmed list of key officials in the Iranian delegation participating in the talks in Pakistan:
Pakistan reiterates commitment to facilitating conflict resolution
Pakistan’s foreign minister says he hopes the US and Iran engage constructively in peace talks, as the US delegation landed in the Pakistani capital a short while ago.
Ishaq Dar reiterated Islamabad’s desire to continue facilitating the parties to reach a “lasting and durable solution to the conflict,” according to a Pakistani foreign ministry statement.
Iran’s delegation arrived in Islamabad late last night.
Islamabad meeting set to be highest-level talks since 1979 Islamic Revolution
When US and Iranian diplomats talk through Pakistan’s mediation in Islamabad later today, they will be the highest-level negotiations Tehran and Washington have had since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
They will also be the first official negotiations since 2015, when they agreed a deal on Iran’s nuclear development.
President Trump scrapped the nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term in office.
That same year, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, banned further direct talks. Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli attack at the start of the war six weeks ago.
Hezbollah continues to target Israeli forces with missiles and drones
The Lebanese armed group said fighters targeted Israeli troops at the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel with missiles and drones.
Hezbollah also said barracks in Ya’ara were targeted by rockets.
Iranian delegation to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif
The Iranian negotiation team will meet Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif this afternoon in Islamabad, reports Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Iranian team met Pakistan’s army chief and foreign minister on arrival at the airport last night, Tasnim said.
Ghalibaf says US should accept Iran’s rights if it wants deal
Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, made the remarks after arriving in Pakistan for talks with US negotiators.
The leader of the Iranian delegation told reporters that Iran has come to Islamabad in good faith, although it does not trust the United States, the official IRNA news agency said.
He reportedly cited Washington’s failure to fulfill its commitments during previous negotiations between the two sides.
‘Hope and cautious optimism’ for breakthrough in US-Iran talks
By Kamal Hyder
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan
There is hope and cautious optimism that some sort of breakthrough will be reached.
JD Vance’s participation has added a fresh touch to the talks.
The last round of talks held in Muscat, Oman, was inconclusive. His presence is expected to add more weight, and there is anticipation that some headway may be made.
Vance is expected to arrive soon, his vehicles and security team are already here.
Unprecedented security is being provided for the talks, which have been made possible with support from friendly countries, particularly China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkiye, who have been backing Pakistan’s role in bringing these two sides together.
Long-term ceasefire hopes as Iranian, US officials to meet in Pakistan
Reporting from Tehran, Iran
We are talking about the most unprecedented diplomatic engagement between Tehran and Washington, as tensions have ramped up to an exceptional level never seen before.
Right now, the two sides are aware of how high the stakes are, and obviously they are going through the trajectory of this diplomatic engagement.
There is hope that it could end up in a long-term ceasefire and the solution of many challenges.
Tehran previously said that it would not negotiate with the United States unless the strikes stopped, and right now, we see a fragile situation of a ceasefire.
We still know that there are many untangled knots that should be addressed, including the ceasefire in Lebanon, the nuclear dossier, sanction relief for Iran, security assurances Tehran is looking for, the Strait of Hormuz and other controversial issues.
The cloud of mistrust is out there when it comes to Tehran’s approach, and we hear rhetoric about preparedness for another round of confrontation.
JD Vance arrives in Islamabad for Iran talks
Sources in Pakistan have told the Reuters news agency that US Vice President JD Vance has arrived in Islamabad for talks with Iran.
Three killed in Israeli strike on south Lebanon
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports the killing of three people in an Israeli air strike which destroyed a residential building in the town of Mayfadoun in the Nabatieh district of southern Lebanon.
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.