![\"Pakistan's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JQARU1_AFP_Pakistan_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nBy Ariba Shahid, Asif Shahzad and Parisa Hafezi, for Reuters<\/p>\n
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\nPakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (right) with US Vice President JD Vance during their meeting amid the US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad on Saturday.
\nPhoto: AFP\/ Jacquelyn Martin J\n<\/p>\n
Trump says the US is ‘clearing out’ the Strait of Hormuz
\nIranian state media deny US ships have transited the waterway
\nBoth sides had ‘mood swings’ during talks, Pakistani source says
\nIran seeks Lebanon ceasefire, reparations, control of Hormuz
\nIsraeli attacks in Lebanon continue, dozens more dead<\/p>\n
US and Iranian negotiators have held their highest-level talks in half a century in Pakistan to try to end their six-week war as President Donald Trump said his military was starting the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
The talks in Islamabad on Saturday were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n
The Strait of Hormuz, a major transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen, is crucial to negotiations between the sides during a two-week ceasefire agreed last week.<\/p>\n
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the waterway remains among the main points of “serious disagreement” in talks between Iranian and US delegations in Islamabad.<\/p>\n
The US military said two of its warships had passed through the strait and conditions were being set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any US ships had transited the waterway.<\/p>\n
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted on social media.<\/p>\n
Strait of Hormuz tolls would impact freedom of navigation – law expert<\/a><\/p>\n US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner flew in on Saturday and met Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for two hours before a rest, according to a source from mediator Pakistan.<\/p>\n The Iranian delegation arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the US bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said.<\/p>\n “There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” another Pakistani source said in reference to the first round of talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict.<\/p>\n Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews said talks would resume later on Saturday night or Sunday.<\/p>\n Pope Leo, in an impassioned appeal on Saturday, urged world leaders to end<\/a> what he called the “madness of war.”<\/p>\n Different demands<\/p>\n The war has sent global oil prices soaring, killed thousands of people and led to strikes on Gulf Arab states. Before the talks began, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the US had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks. But a US official denied it.<\/p>\n
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