ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – APRIL 11: U.S. Vice President JD Vance (center) walks with Chief of Pakistan Defense Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir (left) and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officials April 11, 2026 in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin – Piscine/Getty Images)
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The United States and Iran began peace talks in Pakistan on Saturday, as the war enters its seventh week.
Negotiations aim to cement two-week deal ceasefire It began Tuesday but is under strain as Iran continues to block most maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for oil and gas supplies. Tehran also reiterated a list of preconditions for negotiations.
American Vice President J.D. Vance The team landed in Islamabad early Saturday and was greeted by special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president. Donald Trumpthe son-in-law of, Jared Kushner.
The official X account of the Government of Pakistan published a muted video showing the American vice president J.D. Vance shaking hands with Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif. The American press pool traveling with Vance was not allowed to cover the event because it remained closed to the press.
“Welcoming the commitment of both delegations to engage constructively, the Prime Minister expressed hope that these talks will serve as a springboard towards lasting peace in the region,” the Pakistani government said in a statement. “The Prime Minister reiterated that Pakistan looks forward to continuing to help both sides move towards lasting peace in the region.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in the capital Islamabad on Friday evening.
The government of Pakistan shared in posts on
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar “expressed hope that the parties would engage constructively and reiterated Pakistan’s desire to continue to assist the parties in reaching an agreement.” [a] lasting and lasting solution to the conflict,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement. job on X.
The meeting comes amid heightened tensions following conflicting reports regarding the Strait of Hormuz.
A U.S. official told Axios that several U.S. Navy ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
But MS Now reported that commercial maritime traffic systems showing the U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Michael Murphy, passing through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf were unreliable. A shipping expert told MS NOW it is possible to spoof the system and falsely show a ship in a location where it is not located. MS Now also noted that U.S. Navy ships rarely light transponders indicating their location to these services.
Earlier in the day, a senior Iranian source told Reuters that the United States had agreed to release frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks, but a U.S. official immediately denied the report.
Meanwhile, Trump said the US military had begun clearing the Strait of Hormuz, saying all Iranian mine-laying ships had been sunk.
“We are now beginning the process of cleaning up the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a statement. Truth on social mediaadding that “the 28” Iranian mine-clearing boats “are also lying at the bottom of the sea”.
Iranian prerequisitesBut question marks hover over the ceasefire and the outcome of the talks.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on Saturday that Tehran presented negotiators with four “non-negotiable conditions” to mediators in Islamabad.
They include: “[F]“Complete sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, full war reparations from the aggressor, unconditional release of stranded assets and a lasting ceasefire across the entire West Asia region,” Tasnim said. said on his X account.
Ghalibaf warned Friday that planned negotiations to end the war with the United States could not begin unless Israel stops its attacks on Lebanon and the United States releases Tehran’s frozen assets.
Ghalibaf issued the ultimatum after the Vance-led US delegation left for Islamabad to attend the talks.
“Two of the mutually agreed measures between the parties have yet to be implemented: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked assets from Iran before the start of negotiations,” Ghalibaf said in an X post.
“These two issues must be resolved before negotiations begin,” he wrote.
Oil tankers leave the Gulf through the Strait of HormuzThree supertankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, according to shipping data, marking what appears to be the first vessels to leave the Gulf since the ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran.
Tehran’s blockade of the strait, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, since Iran’s war began in late February, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent oil prices soaring.
The Liberian-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Serifos and the Chinese-flagged VLCCs Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai entered and exited the “Hormuz Passage test anchorage” that bypasses Iran’s Larak Island on Saturday, according to LSEG data.
Each ship is capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil.
Serifos, carrying crude loaded from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in early March, is expected to arrive at Malaysia’s Malacca port on April 21, according to data from LSEG and analytics firm Kpler.
Lake Cospearl is loaded with Iraqi oil and He Rong Hai carries Saudi crude, according to the same data.
The two VLCCs are chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese energy giant Sinopec, according to the data.
Trump’s frustration with IranTrump expressed frustration that Iran continues to block most maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
In a announcement On Tuesday evening, Trump said the United States would agree to a two-week suspension of hostilities subject to Iran agreeing to a full and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
But since then, maritime traffic across the strait remains almost as limited as it has been since the war began on February 28.
In a society of truth job On Thursday evening, Trump fumed: “There are reports that Iran is charging fees to oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. They better not do it, and if they do, they better stop now!
Iran is “doing a very poor, some would say dishonorable, job of allowing oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote in a subsequent message. “That’s not the deal we have!”
—Terri Cullen of CNBC, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
