Iran’s foreign minister is leaving without meeting the US delegation, Pakistani officials say – National
Iran’s foreign minister left Pakistan on Saturday evening, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press, before there were any signs that US envoys had arrived to discuss the sensitive issue.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was seen leaving the airport, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
He met with Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over what he called Iran’s red lines in talks, saying Tehran would cooperate with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved.”
It was not clear when President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were due to arrive in Islamabad. The White House declined to comment.
The open-ended ceasefire has halted many wars, but the economic fallout is growing with global exports of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizers and other goods disrupted by the imminent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials have openly questioned how they can trust the US after negotiations last year and earlier this year over Tehran’s nuclear program ended with US and Israeli strikes.
Iran said the talks would be indirect
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Islamabad had been on the verge of a shutdown ahead of the much-anticipated talks. Pakistan has been trying to bring the US and Iran back to the table since Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire, honoring Islamabad’s request for more contacts.
The White House on Friday said Trump was sending Witkoff and Kushner to meet with Araghchi. But Iran’s foreign ministry said any talks would be indirect and Pakistani officials would convey messages.
The first round of talks in Pakistan, led on the US side by Vice President JD Vance, lasted more than 20 hours and were face-to-face, the highest-level direct talks between long-time enemies since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Araghchi and Trump’s delegation held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on February 27 but left without an agreement. The next day, Israel and the United States went to war.
The standoff along the strait continues
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is still about 50% higher than when the war began because of Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.
Iran has attacked three ships this week, and the US maintains an embargo on Iranian ports. Trump ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that might lay mines.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday that his country is sending minesweepers to the Mediterranean to help remove Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict ends.
The port’s shipping density has been absorbed by global maritime trade, including the Panama Canal almost halfway around the world.
And on Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s international airport for the first time since the war began with US and Israeli strikes two months ago. The flights were supposed to depart for Istanbul, the Omani capital Muscat and the Saudi city of Medina, according to Iran’s state television. Iran partially reopened its airspace earlier this month as a result of the ceasefire.
The number is increasing as the fighting is stopped
Since the start of the war, authorities say at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and more than 2,490 people in Lebanon, where fresh fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah broke out two days into the Iran war.
Additionally, 23 people were killed in Israel and more than a dozen in the Gulf Arab countries. 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon, 13 members of the US in the region and six members of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Trump announced on Thursday that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend the truce between Israel and Hezbollah for three weeks. Hezbollah did not participate in Washington’s diplomacy.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
