The United States and Iran began historic face-to-face negotiations Saturday in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced, as\u00a0the war\u00a0that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets\u00a0entered its seventh week.<\/p>\n
The White House confirmed the direct nature of the talks, a rare instance of high-level engagement.<\/p>\n
Iran’s state-run news agency said three-party talks including Pakistan began after Iranian preconditions, including a reduction in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, were met, and after U.S. and Iranian officials met separately with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.<\/p>\n
The U.S. delegation led by\u00a0Vice President JD Vance\u00a0and the Iranian one led by Parliament Speaker\u00a0Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf\u00a0were discussing how to advance the ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Now talks are underway between Mr. Vance, a\u00a0reluctant defender\u00a0of the war who has little diplomatic experience and warned Iran not to \u201ctry and play us,\u201d and Mr. Qalibaf, a former commander with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard who has issued some of Iran’s most fiery statements since fighting began.<\/p>\n
Iran sets \u2018red lines\u2019 including compensation for strikes<\/p>\n
Iran doubled down on parts of its earlier proposal, with its delegation telling Iranian state television it had presented some of the plan\u2019s ideas as \u201cred lines\u201d in meetings with Mr. Sharif. Those included compensation for damage caused by U.S.-Israeli strikes that launched the war on Feb. 28 and releasing Iran\u2019s frozen assets.<\/p>\n
The war has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 1,953 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 chokehold on the vital\u00a0Strait of Hormuz\u00a0has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy,\u00a0sending energy prices soaring.<\/p>\n
Reflecting the high stakes, officials from the region said Chinese, Egyptian, Saudi, and Qatari officials were in Islamabad to indirectly facilitate the talks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.<\/p>\n
In Tehran, residents told The Associated Press they were skeptical yet hopeful about the talks after weeks of airstrikes left destruction across their country of some 93 million people. Some said the path to recovery would be long.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeace alone is not enough for our country, because we\u2019ve been hit very hard, there have been huge costs,\u201d Amir Razzai Far said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Officials posture over key issues ahead of talks<\/p>\n
Ahead of the talks, President Donald Trump accused Iran of using\u00a0the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global energy supplies, for extortion, and told reporters Friday it would be opened \u201cwith or without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s closure of the strait has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war. Around a fifth of the world\u2019s traded oil had typically passed through on over 100 ships a day. Only 12 have been recorded transiting since the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Mr. Trump said on social media that the U.S. had begun \u201cclearing out\u201d the strait, but it was unclear whether he was referring to the reported use of mines there or Iran\u2019s broader ability to control the area.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said Tehran was entering negotiations with \u201cdeep distrust\u201d after\u00a0strikes\u00a0on Iran during previous rounds of talks. Mr. Araghchi, part of Iran\u2019s delegation in Pakistan, said Saturday that his country was prepared to retaliate if attacked again.<\/p>\n
Iran and the United States outlined competing proposals ahead of the talks.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s 10-point proposal called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the Strait of Hormuz. It included ending fighting against Iran\u2019s \u201cregional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
The United States\u2019 15-point proposal includes restricting Iran\u2019s nuclear program and reopening the strait.<\/p>\n
Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations<\/p>\n
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun\u2019s office said Friday, after Israel’s\u00a0surprise announcement authorizing talks\u00a0despite the countries lack of official relations.<\/p>\n
But thousands in Lebanon protested the planned negotiations, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had postponed a planned trip to Washington \u201cin light of the current internal circumstances.\u201d It was not immediately clear what that meant for the talks.<\/p>\n
Israel wants the Lebanese government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much like was envisaged in a\u00a0November 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.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does\u00a0not include a pause\u00a0in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of Iran in the opening days. Israel followed up with airstrikes and a\u00a0ground invasion.<\/p>\n
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel\u00a0pounded 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.<\/p>\n
Energy pressures grow<\/p>\n
The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard for oil prices, was above $94 on Saturday, up more than 30% since the war started.<\/p>\n
And new pressures emerged in Europe for travelers.<\/p>\n
The head of Airports Council International-Europe, Olivier Jankovec, warned the European Union that a \u2033systemic jet fuel shortage\u2019\u2019 could come within three weeks because of the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Mr. Jankovec said in a letter obtained by the AP that the crunch could impact the summer travel season and \u2033significantly harm the European economy.\u2019\u2032<\/p>\n
This story was reported by The Associated Press.\u00a0Metz reported from Jerusalem, Castillo from Beijing, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and Iran began historic face-to-face negotiations Saturday in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-578259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}