White House confirms peace talks are happening face to face The White House has confirmed that the negotiations between the US and Iran currently under way in Islamabad are happening face to face. The meeting today marks the highest-level direct engagement between Washington and Tehran in decades.
The core US delegation is led by Vice-President JD Vance, alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, supported by senior advisers including Dr Andrew Baker and Michael Vance. This high-stakes diplomatic summit, facilitated by Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and chief of army staff Asim Munir, aims to secure a peace agreement to end the weeks-long conflict.
The White House also confirmed that a “full suite of US experts on relevant subject areas are present in Islamabad” and “additional experts are supporting from Washington.” The strait of Hormuz remains among the main points of “serious disagreement” in talks between Iranian and US delegations in Islamabad, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday. It added that consultations were continuing despite what it described as excessive US demands, while Iran insisted on preserving its military gains.
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that he had spoken with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, and had emphasized to him the importance of de-escalating the current situation through the ceasefire talks in Pakistan. “I stressed the need for Iran to restore freedom of navigation and security in the Strait of Hormuz as quickly as possible, to which France stands ready to contribute.
I insisted on the importance of fully respecting the ceasefire, including in Lebanon,” Macron said in a post on X. The US military says it “began setting conditions for clearing mines in the strait of Hormuz” in an update released on Saturday afternoon.