A U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance met with senior Iranian negotiators Saturday afternoon in Pakistan, officials from Iran and the White House said. It was a historic encounter between decades-old adversaries as they sought to broker peace after more than a month of war.
The negotiating session, mediated by Pakistan, was the highest-level face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which put the two countries on a collision course.
The United States and Iran agreed to a provisional ceasefire last Tuesday that suspended the fighting for at least two weeks. Iranian and American negotiators have been in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, to turn the pause in fighting into a lasting peace.
The truce remains extremely brittle. Israel has kept up its ground invasion and airstrikes in Lebanon, part of a military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group, angering Tehran. Iran also maintains its grip over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit route for oil and gas, despite President Donald Trump’s demand that it be free and open for shipping.
‘Make or Break Moment’
In a Friday address, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan said the talks in Islamabad were a “make or break” moment. Negotiators from the two countries have laid out red lines on Iran’s nuclear program that leave little clear path to a resolution.
Israel and the United States attacked Iran in late February, killing many of Iran’s top leaders and calling for the ouster of its government. Iran retaliated with attacks that have since drawn in much of the Middle East and battered the world economy. Iran also began blockading the Strait of Hormuz, sending global energy prices skyrocketing.
Vance Is Cautious but Optimistic
On Friday, Vance struck an optimistic but cautious tone as he headed to the talks. The vice president privately opposed Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, even as he has publicly backed the military campaign.
“I think it’s going to be positive,” Vance told reporters, but he warned that if the Iranians were “going to try to play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah has threatened to derail the truce. Iran had accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire by continuing to attack in Lebanon, leading Trump to ask Israel to rein in its assault.
Israeli fighter jets have not attacked the Lebanese capital of Beirut since Wednesday. But Israel has kept up its airstrikes in southern Lebanon, including on Saturday morning, according to Lebanon’s state media.
Other News
— Negotiating team: Vance was joined in Islamabad by Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Iranian delegation, which includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, arrived earlier in the Pakistani capital.
— Strait of Hormuz: Trump said on social media Saturday that the United States had begun “clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” where Iran laid mines during the course of the war. Only a handful of ships have passed through the strait since the ceasefire began. U.S. officials said one reason Iran had been unable to get more ships through was that it could not locate and remove all of the mines it laid in the waterway.
— Israel and Lebanon: The countries’ ambassadors to the United States are expected to meet in Washington next week for direct talks, but a settlement to end the war in Lebanon is not expected imminently. More than 1 million people — roughly a fifth of the population — have been forced from their homes since the renewed war erupted last month between Israel and Hezbollah.
— Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of Wednesday. Lebanon’s Health Ministry on Friday said that at least 1,953 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, including 357 in a wave of Israeli strikes on Wednesday. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Aaron Boxerman, Tyler Pager, Farnaz Fassihi and Elian Peltier/
c.2026 The New York Times Company
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