ISLAMABAD (AP) \u2014\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0announced Sunday that it will soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran, though there was no immediate word from Washington or Tehran, and it was unclear whether discussions on the\u00a0monthlong war\u00a0would be direct or indirect.<\/p>\n
“Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the U.S. have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks. Pakistan will be honored to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in the coming days,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said after top diplomats from Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia met in Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Pakistan later said the diplomats had departed for their home countries. The talks were originally scheduled to continue Monday.<\/p>\n
Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not answer questions, and Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment.<\/p>\n
WATCH: Iran warns of ‘surprise’ for U.S. troops if ground invasion begins<\/a><\/p>\n Islamabad has emerged as a mediator, having relatively good ties with Washington and Tehran, after what Pakistani officials call weeks of quiet diplomacy.<\/p>\n Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover after some\u00a02,500 U.S. Marines\u00a0trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East. He said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.<\/p>\n Iran also threatened to attack homes of U.S. and Israeli “commanders and political officials” in the region. A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s joint command, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, cited the “targeting of residential homes of the Iranian people in various cities” and other “malicious actions,” state media reported.<\/p>\n READ MORE: What we know and don’t know about Iran war negotiations<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will widen its\u00a0invasion\u00a0of Lebanon, expanding the “existing security strip” in that country’s south while targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. No details were released.<\/p>\n Over 1 million Lebanese have been displaced in the war. One of them, Mohammad Doghman, called Israel “an expansionist state.”<\/p>\n Fleeing Iranians urge U.S. to end war<\/p>\n The war\u00a0has threatened\u00a0global supplies\u00a0of oil, natural gas and\u00a0fertilizer\u00a0and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic\u00a0Strait of Hormuz\u00a0has shaken markets and prices. Now the\u00a0Iranian-backed Houthi rebels\u00a0‘ entry into the war could threaten shipping on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea.<\/p>\n “We don’t know at what moment our homes could be targeted,” said Razzak Saghir al-Mousawi, 71, describing relentless airstrikes as Iranians crossing into Iraq urged the United States to end the war. “I am definitely afraid.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: Iran dismisses U.S. ceasefire plan and issues its own counterproposal<\/a><\/p>\n Witnesses reported more strikes Sunday night in Tehran, and state media cited Iran’s energy ministry as saying power was cut in Tehran and Alborz provinces after attacks on electricity facilities. The Israeli military said it was striking Tehran and that Iran had launched more missiles.<\/p>\n More than 3,000 people have been killed in\u00a0the war\u00a0that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Iranian attacks against Israel and U.S. military assets and other sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states. The war continues on\u00a0the digital front\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n Egypt says meetings aim for ‘direct dialogue’<\/p>\n Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the meetings in Pakistan are aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators. The war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes during indirect talks. Pakistan said the foreign ministers met Sunday without U.S. or Israeli participation.<\/p>\n Iranian officials have rejected a U.S. 15-point “action list” as a framework for a possible peace deal and publicly dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure. But Iran’s state broadcaster has reported that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal reportedly calling for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”<\/p>\n