ISLAMABAD – A delegation of U.S. envoys is scheduled to visit Pakistan on Saturday, aiming to rejuvenate stalled ceasefire discussions with Iran. This visit coincides with Iran’s refusal to engage in direct dialogue with U.S. representatives, as its top diplomat makes an appearance in Islamabad.
The renewed diplomatic initiative seeks to solidify a ceasefire that has largely halted hostilities, though the economic ramifications persist. The global energy supply chain remains disrupted due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan is actively mediating to re-engage the U.S. and Iran in negotiations. This follows President Trump’s recent decision to indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, a move made in response to Islamabad’s appeal for more diplomatic leeway.
According to the White House, President Donald Trump has tasked Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner with meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. However, shortly after Araghchi’s arrival in Islamabad, his ministry clarified that any discussions would be conducted indirectly, with Pakistani officials acting as intermediaries between the two nations.
Previously, Araghchi and the Trump envoys engaged in indirect negotiations in Geneva on February 27 regarding Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Unfortunately, these talks concluded without reaching an agreement. The following day, a conflict ignited as Israel and the United States initiated military actions against Iran.
Araghchi and the two Trump envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on Feb. 27 over Tehran’s nuclear program, but walked away without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started the war against Iran.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president had decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out.”
“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt said. She did not offer any details about what U.S. officials were hearing.
Trump extends the Jones Act waiver for 90 days
Separately Friday, the White House said Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas.
He first announced a 60-day waiver in March in a move intended to stabilize energy prices and ease oil and gas shipments to the U.S. following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.
Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the U.S. is maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, retreated on the news, vacillating between $103 a barrel and more than $107 — still nearly 50% higher than where it was on Feb. 28, when the war began.
The squeeze on shipments through the strait has rippled through global maritime trade flows, including through the Panama Canal nearly halfway around the world.
A growing toll even as ceasefires hold
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,490 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.
Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has also sustained casualties. UNIFIL said Friday that an Indonesian peacekeeper died of wounds sustained in an attack on his base on March 29, raising to six — four Indonesians and two French — the number of force members killed since the war erupted.
Tensions linger in Lebanon despite extended truce
The situation in Lebanon remained tense after Trump on Thursday announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the diplomacy brokered by Washington.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement released by his office on Friday, hailed “a process to achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon.”
Earlier, the Israeli army asked residents of the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames to evacuate, saying Hezbollah was using the village to launch attacks against Israel.
Israel’s military said it had downed a drone over Lebanon following the launch of a small surface-to-air missile by Hezbollah. The militant group, meanwhile, said it shot down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile over the outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Cohen from Bangkok. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok; Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; and Aamer Madhani, Josh Boak and Ashraf Khalil in Washington contributed.
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