**Washington (United States) (AFP)** – Iran’s foreign minister and envoys of US President Donald Trump were heading to Pakistan, their respective governments said Friday, in the first concrete sign of movement on renewed peace negotiations in nearly two weeks. The announcement that Trump emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were leaving for Islamabad came after the US leader announced a truce in Lebanon had been prolonged following a meeting with Israeli and Lebanese envoys in Washington.
While Trump expressed confidence at the prospect of a lasting peace in Lebanon, sealing a deal to end the wider Middle East war is a thornier proposition, even as urgency mounts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday night, an official source in Pakistan said. A spokesman for his ministry said the trip would also include visits to Oman and Russia after the Pakistan stop, adding that Araghchi would meet “senior officials” and discuss “the latest status of efforts to end” the war. But he made no mention of new talks with US representatives.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, however, said Witkoff and Kushner would head to Pakistan on Saturday “to engage in talks… with representatives from the Iranian delegation”. “The Iranians reached out, as the president called on them to do, and asked for this in-person conversation,” she said, adding that the conversations would “hopefully move the ball forward towards a deal”.
**Iran impasse** – Leavitt said US Vice President JD Vance, who led a first round of talks in Islamabad that concluded without a deal, would not be joining the others for the time being, but was on “standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary”. Since the last round of talks, efforts to bring the two sides back to the table have hit an impasse, with Iran refusing to participate as long as a US blockade on its ports remained in place. Iran has imposed a de facto blockade of its own on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing only a trickle of ships to pass through the waterway, throwing global energy markets into turmoil.
Oil prices slid on Friday amid hopes that any fresh peace talks would see an end to Tehran’s disruption of trade through the strait. European Council President Antonio Costa said Friday that the strait “must immediately reopen without restrictions and without tolling”. “This is vital for the entire world,” he added. Trump had previously indicated he was in no rush to end the war with Iran, saying he had “all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t”. The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier recently arrived in the Middle East, the US military said, bringing the number of the massive warships operating in the region to three.
**Lebanon strikes** – In Lebanon, despite Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire extension, state media reported two people killed in an Israeli strike near Touline on Friday. And in Bint Jbeil, the Israeli military said its forces killed six Hezbollah fighters on Friday in a firefight and subsequent strike on a building. Israel also confirmed a claim by Hezbollah that it had shot down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile.
Mohammed Raad, the head of the Iran-backed group’s parliamentary bloc, urged the Lebanese government to withdraw from direct talks with Israel and warned that a lasting peace deal of the kind sought by Trump “will in no way enjoy Lebanese national consensus”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy the Iran-backed movement, said: “We have started a process to reach a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon, and it’s clear to us that Hezbollah is trying to sabotage this.”
In south Lebanon’s Tyre, Mohamad Ali Hijazi was searching a mountain of rubble for mementos of family members killed in an Israeli airstrike minutes before the ceasefire took hold. “I’m trying to find my mother’s hairbrush… and a bottle of perfume that she loves,” said Hijazi, 48 — some of the last things he sent her from France, where he has long lived with his wife and two daughters. “My life has been destroyed. I haven’t slept for five days,” he told AFP, repeatedly fighting back tears. In Washington, Trump spoke in glowing terms of peace prospects for Lebanon, voicing hope for a three-way meeting with the Lebanese and Israeli leaders. The two countries have been officially at war for decades and until last week had not met so directly since 1993.
© 2024 AFP
