US and Iranian negotiators held their highest-level talks in half a century in Pakistan on Saturday to try to end their six-week war, as President Donald Trump said his forces were clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
The waterway, a key transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen, has been crucial to talks between the sides during a ceasefire that broke last Tuesday and over the past two weeks.
“We are now beginning the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz on behalf of nations around the world,” Trump posted on social media.
The US military said two of its warships had passed through the strait and were setting conditions to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied that any US ships had transited the waterway.
The talks in Islamabad were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest level of discussions since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived on Saturday and met Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for two hours before a break, according to a Pakistani source.
The Iranian delegation came Friday wearing black to mourn Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war.
The Iranian government said they took shoes and bags of some students killed during a US bombing of a school next to a military compound.
Another Pakistani source close to the first round of talks said, “There were mood swings on both sides during the meeting and the temperature kept going up and down.”
Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews said talks would resume on Saturday night or Sunday.—Reuters
