American and Iranian delegations met face to face in Islamabad on Saturday in the highest-level direct diplomatic engagement between the two countries in nearly five decades, as a fragile two-week ceasefire created a rare opening to negotiate an end to a conflict that has rattled the Middle East and global energy markets since late February. The talks, held at the Serena Hotel and confirmed by the White House as fully face-to-face, unfolded across multiple rounds and extended into the night, with expert committees covering economic, military, legal, and nuclear portfolios exchanging written texts after hours of in-person discussion.
The US delegation was led by Vice President JD Vance, accompanied by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, along with senior officials from the National Security Council, State Department, and Department of Defence. Iran sent Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf alongside Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Supreme National Defence Council Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government brokered the April 8 ceasefire after the conflict spread across the region following US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28, met separately with both delegations and pledged to continue Pakistan's mediation role.
The ceasefire itself nearly collapsed before talks began. Tehran had conditioned its participation on a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon and the release of approximately seven billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets. An Iranian official indicated that Beirut's protection had been secured as a red line, though the divergence over whether Lebanon falls within the ceasefire's scope continues to threaten the diplomatic track. Israel, which is not party to the Islamabad talks, declared through Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it would continue fighting Iran's forces and proxies regardless of the negotiations.
The most intractable dispute appears to centre on the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly twenty percent of global oil and gas trade once flowed before Iran effectively restricted passage over six weeks ago, driving a sharp rise in energy prices. Washington is pressing for restored freedom of navigation and has claimed its navy destroyers have begun transiting the strait as part of a mine-clearing operation — a claim Iranian military spokespeople flatly denied, saying any vessel's passage requires coordination with Tehran. An Iranian parliamentary official on the national security committee told Al Jazeera that the strait's status represents a wartime achievement Iran has no intention of reversing, firmly rejecting any joint management arrangement with the United States. Iran's position is that navigation through the waterway is a matter exclusively for regional states.
Beyond the Hormuz impasse, the two sides remain far apart on Iran's nuclear programme, sanctions relief, and the sequencing of any concessions. Iran's ten-point framework — accepted by Washington as a general basis for talks — calls for full sanctions removal and recognition of its enrichment rights, while the US is seeking limits on enrichment and the possible removal of nuclear material. Analysts and officials caution that the breadth of unresolved issues makes a comprehensive breakthrough within this initial two-day engagement unlikely, with the best realistic outcome being a framework for continued talks or limited de-escalation understandings. French President Emmanuel Macron and Pope Leo XIV both called publicly for restraint and a return to dialogue on Saturday, underscoring the degree to which the conflict's consequences — from disrupted shipping to strained alliances — have extended far beyond the immediate parties.