ISLAMABAD: US-Iran talks in Islamabad to try to end their six-week war could move into a third round, Iranian state media reported late on Saturday evening, as negotiations stretched into the night with no clear timeline for conclusion despite direct engagement between the two sides.
At least two rounds were held during the day, one through intermediaries and another involving direct talks, as Pakistan hosted negotiations aimed at building on a fragile ceasefire announced earlier this week.
“According to information provided to the state TV correspondent by a person close to the negotiating team, another round of negotiations will likely be held tonight or tomorrow,” Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported.
An Iranian state TV correspondent reported that there were “plans for a third round of talks,” the latest in the efforts mediated by Pakistan to end the war.
“We are waiting to see whether this [third round] will happen or not,” the correspondent said, according to state TV.
But despite the start of direct engagement, the talks process remains deeply uncertain, with major sticking points threatening to derail progress.
Iran has demanded that the ceasefire extend to Lebanon and that sanctions be lifted, while the United States has ruled out concessions on uranium enrichment and signaled skepticism over reopening key oil routes such as the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively blocked since the war began on Feb. 28 and which US President Donald Trump has vowed to reopen.
Disagreements also persist over Iran’s missile program and the broader scope of the truce, underscoring the fragile nature of the talks and the risk that negotiations could stall or require multiple rounds to make progress.
“There has been 47 years of tension between the United States and Iran,” Pakistan’s Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told Geo TV. “Such matters are not resolved in just a one- or two-hour sitting.”
“At the outset … a one-day timeframe was expected,” he added. “If this engagement remains positive, the talks could extend into tomorrow.”
By 1am on Sunday morning, the US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance had been at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad for more than 12 hours, with no clear indication of when the talks would conclude or how long Vance would stay in Pakistan.
Speaking to reporters before boarding his flight to Islamabad, Vance had said Trump had given him “some pretty clear guidelines” for the talks.
“We’re going to try to have a positive negotiation,” Vance said.
“If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand ... If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
THREE-WAY TALKS
Pakistan is hosting the talks after weeks of diplomatic outreach led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir, positioning Islamabad as a key intermediary in a conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
The war has caused the biggest oil supply shock on record, damaging regional energy production and raising fears of inflation, food insecurity and a potential global economic slowdown.
Trump, ahead of midterm elections later this year, faces pressure to find an off-ramp from the conflict after announcing a ceasefire on Tuesday.
At least three Pakistani officials told Arab News that direct talks between the US and Iran began on Saturday afternoon.
One, a member of cabinet, said Sharif was not in the negotiations, which were being chaired by the Pakistani army chief Munir. They were attended by Vance and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner on the American side. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi led the delegation from Tehran.
Reuters also reported, quoting a Pakistani source: “Three-way talks were face-to-face between Witkoff, Vance, Kushner, Iran’s Qalibaf, Araghchi, Pakistan’s army chief.”
An Iranian government account said talks had “entered the expert-level stage as economic, military, legal, and nuclear committees joined,” adding that negotiations were continuing at a hotel in the capital.
The two delegations had earlier communicated through intermediaries and held separate meetings with Sharif.
A Pakistani source told Reuters it was too early to say whether talks would end on Saturday, adding there was no time limit for negotiations.
Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam said the onus was on Washington to respond constructively to mediation efforts.
“It remains to be seen whether the US honors the mediation efforts of the host in good office,” he wrote on X.
The negotiations are taking place as Islamabad, a city of about 2 million people, remained under tight security, with hundreds of military, paramilitary and police personnel deployed across the capital.
The talks are the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But even as talks continued, Trump said his military was starting the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the waterway remains among the main points of “serious disagreement” in talks between the Iranian and US delegations.
The US military said two of its warships had passed through the strait and conditions were being set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any US ships had transited the waterway.
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted on social media.
With additional inputs from agencies
