The US and Iran have begun their highest-level talks in almost 50 years in a bid to end their more than five-week war that has spread across the Middle East and triggered a global energy crisis.
US vice-president JD Vance is leading the American delegation, which includes envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Iran’s senior wartime leaders, was leading the Islamic republic’s team of negotiators, Iranian state media said on Saturday.
Pakistan’s powerful military chief Asim Munir, who has a close relationship with Trump as well as Iran’s leaders, mediated the face-to-face meeting between the top officials from both countries, people briefed on the talks said.
It was the first time such senior US and Iranian officials have engaged in negotiations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Their participation underlined how high the stakes have become after weeks of conflict.
The talks began in Islamabad after the two sides separately met Pakistani leaders to lay the ground for negotiations that are expected to focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reaching a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme and Tehran’s demand for sanctions relief.
Negotiators said there was a “stalemate” over control of the strait. Two people briefed on the negotiations said discussions over its reopening remained a sticking point. One of the people said Iran insisted it retained control over the waterway and could charge vessels a toll.
Iranian state television said the US had agreed to release billions of dollars of Iran’s oil funds frozen overseas because of American sanctions, in what would be a significant concession by Washington.
A US official denied a report that Washington had agreed to the move.
However, the US has discussed unfreezing Iran’s overseas assets, including $6bn held in Qatar, with Pakistani mediators, according to two people briefed on the talks.
The talks were aimed at building on a fragile two-week ceasefire agreed on Tuesday. But diplomats have warned that big gaps remain between the parties whose relationship has been characterised by decades of hostility.
The Trump administration and Tehran were holding indirect talks over Iran’s nuclear programme before the US and Israel launched their war against the Islamic republic on February 28, deepening Iran’s distrust of its foe.
The conflict has also complicated negotiations, as Iran has gained greater leverage since it closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime trade route through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes.
Trump made the strait’s reopening a condition of the ceasefire. But Iran halted the transit of tankers through the chokepoint after Israel escalated its offensive against Hizbollah.
Two American warships transited through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday for the first time since the start of the war with Iran, a US official said.
Israel launched a massive bombardment of Lebanon on Wednesday that killed more than 350 people, according to the Lebanese officials.
Iran has insisted that Lebanon be part of the ceasefire, but the US said it was not included. After Israel’s offensive threatened to derail the truce, Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him to scale back the bombardment.
Late on Friday, the US oversaw a call between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors in Washington. Lebanon and Israel subsequently agreed to hold talks in Washington next week to discuss a ceasefire, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said. It would be the first direct talks between the two countries in more than four decades.
Iran has also insisted that it continue to charge a fee for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which complicates Trump’s efforts to reopen the waterway to ease energy prices. Iran charging a toll is also a red line for the US’s Gulf allies which depend on it for their oil and gas exports.
There are also big challenges to secure an agreement on the nuclear programme, with Trump insisting that Iran give up its capacity to enrich uranium, which Tehran has repeatedly rejected.
In addition, they would need to agree on a resolution to the republic’s stockpile of 440kg of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade level, which is believed to be beneath the rubble of three nuclear sites the US bombed during Israel’s 12-day war against Iran last June.
However, the size and seniority of the delegations indicated that both sides wanted to reach a deal, with Iran’s team made up of some 70 officials including foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, a veteran nuclear negotiator, and defence, finance and legal officials.
Iran had requested that Vance lead the US delegation as they considered him less supportive of Trump’s war against the republic. They had also lost trust in Witkoff and Kushner after rounds of talks before the conflict, according to one person in Pakistan involved in back-channel negotiations.
The Islamic regime believes it gained the upper hand by closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacking energy facilities across the Gulf, which pushed oil and gas prices to multiyear highs.
But Iran has also suffered devastating blows as thousands of US and Israeli air strikes pummelled the country, killing its top leaders, significantly degrading its military capabilities and hitting the heart of its industrial base.
Trump said this week that the US was discussing sanctions relief with Iran, and would work with the republic to remove all the “deeply buried” nuclear “dust” at the bombed facilities.
The $6bn in Qatar, which had been frozen in South Korea, was transferred to accounts in Doha after the Biden administration agreed to release the money as part of a prisoner swap deal with Iran in September 2023.
But it remained blocked as tensions deteriorated after after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel triggered a wave of regional conflict.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
www.ft.com
#Iran #highestlevel #talks #decades
