Iran’s delegation arrived in Pakistan on Friday for ceasefire negotiations with the United States, as Tehran insisted on a cease-fire in Lebanon and the release of its frozen assets for talks to continue.
US Vice President JD Vance meanwhile warned Iran not to try to “play” Washington as he traveled to Islamabad to represent the United States.
Despite the temporary ceasefire reached between the enemies, deep disagreements remain over the way forward in talks aimed at transforming the fragile ceasefire into a lasting peace deal.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said progress would be hard work.
“A temporary ceasefire has been declared, but now there is an even more difficult phase ahead: the phase of achieving a lasting ceasefire, of resolving complicated issues through negotiations,” he said. “This is the phase which, in English, is called the equivalent of ‘make or break’.”
Iranian state television said the delegation was led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and reiterated Iran’s position that talks would begin only if Washington accepts its preconditions: a cease-fire in Lebanon and the freezing of Iranian assets.
Israel continued to carry out airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday, and Lebanon’s State Security agency said an attack in the southern city of Nabatiyeh had killed 13 of its personnel.
Lebanon’s health ministry meanwhile raised the provisional death toll from massive Israeli strikes across the country on Wednesday to 357 dead and 1,223 wounded.
Lebanon’s presidency said a meeting will be held with Israel in Washington next week to discuss a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hezbollah and the possible start of negotiations between the neighbors.
“Open Hand”
Vance, speaking to reporters before departing for Islamabad, said that “if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we are certainly willing to extend an open hand.”
But “if they’re going to try to play with us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that open,” he said.
Official sources say the talks in Islamabad will cover several sensitive points, including Iran’s nuclear enrichment and the free flow of trade through the crucial oil channel, the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the ceasefire took effect, President Donald Trump has expressed displeasure over Iran’s handling of the strait, which it was supposed to reopen, while Tehran has reacted angrily to continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Trump posted on Friday on his social network “Truth” that Iran has “no cards” in the talks “other than short-term extortion of the world using international waterways.”
In Islamabad, all roads leading to the Serena Hotel, the expected venue for the talks, were blocked off with tight security, while a large flag and digital signage along the highway announced “Islamabad Talks”.
“Pure Noise”
A 30-year-old Tehran resident told AFP he was skeptical the negotiations would be successful, describing much of what Trump says as “pure noise and nonsense”.
“He wants to manipulate the Islamic Republic to get a deal. I think that was his goal, if you can say he has a goal.”
A fifth of the world’s oil and vast quantities of natural gas and fertilizer pass through the Strait of Hormuz in peacetime, but only a small number of ships have passed since the ceasefire was announced earlier this week.
The two-week ceasefire was agreed to allow time for negotiations aimed at ending a conflict that has already killed thousands and plunged the global economy into turmoil.
“I fear the resumption of war and at the same time I fear the attitude of the regime,” Tehran resident Sheida told AFP, withholding her last name out of concern for her safety.
As Israel continued to carry out airstrikes in Lebanon, the Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired about 30 shells from Lebanon into its territory on Friday.
Hezbollah said it had targeted Israel’s Ashdod naval base with missiles “in response to the enemy’s violation of the ceasefire and its repeated attacks on Beirut”.
Trump told NBC News on Thursday that Israel was “reducing” its attacks on Lebanon and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assured him that his attacks would become “lower.”
A Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity that there was “continuous pressure from European states, the Gulf states and Egypt on Israel to prevent the renewal of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut after ‘Black Wednesday'”.
