Iran-US talks face uncertainty as Tehran sets preconditions despite ceasefire

Iran’s negotiating team arrived in Islamabad on Friday for peace talks with the United States, even as Tehran insisted on measures it said needed to be addressed first, throwing last-minute doubt over the meetings.

US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the six-week war on Tuesday, just hours before a deadline after which Trump had threatened to destroy Iran's civilisation.

The ceasefire has halted US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed a parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran's ‌parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, and added that talks would not start until those pledges are fulfilled.

The Iranian delegation, led by Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived in Islamabad, the nation's foreign ministry said. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the group consists of around 70 members, including technical specialists in economic, security and political fields as well as media personnel and support staff, reflecting what it described as the high sensitivity of the negotiations.

Speaking from Islamabad, Qalibaf said Tehran had goodwill towards negotiations but no trust in the United States, adding that Iran was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

While there was no immediate comment from the White House on the Iranian demands, Trump said in a social media post that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.

“The Iranians don't seem to realise they have no cards, other than a short-term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the U.S. delegation, said he expected a positive outcome as he headed to Pakistan, but added: “If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a national address on Friday night, laid out the stakes of the talks.

“The permanent ceasefire is the next difficult phase, which is to resolve the complicated issues through negotiation. This, as called in English, is a make-or-break phase,” Sharif said.

Israeli-Hezbollah fighting continues
The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials said. But the two sides have issued conflicting statements on what the talks would cover.

Lebanon's presidency said the two held a phone call on Friday and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks under U.S. mediation. But Israel's embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations,” and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israel and the US have said the campaign against militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon is not part of the Iran-US ceasefire. Hours after it was announced, Israel launched the biggest attack of the war, killing more than 350 people in surprise strikes on heavily populated areas, Lebanese authorities said.

Israeli strikes continued across southern Lebanon on Friday. One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of Lebanon's state security forces, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.

Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rocket salvos at northern Israeli towns in response. Lebanese authorities say at least 1,953 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2.