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Apr 11, 2026

US‑Iran Ceasefire Talks in Pakistan Undermined by Fresh Tehran‑Washington Dispute Over Lebanon and Frozen Assets

AI Summary
A US delegation arrived in Islamabad for scheduled cease‑fire negotiations with Iran, but newly surfaced disagreements—particularly over a Lebanese ceasefire and the release of Iranian assets—have cast doubt on the talks. President Trump’s renewed threats and Iran’s military warnings have heightened tensions, while Vice President JD Vance remains cautiously optimistic about a positive outcome.

The United States team landed in Islamabad on Friday, gearing up for Saturday’s planned cease‑fire talks with Iran aimed at pausing the ongoing US‑Israel‑Iran conflict.

New friction erupted on Friday when senior officials from both sides exchanged conflicting accounts of a 10‑point Iranian proposal that underpinned Tuesday’s temporary pause in hostilities.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on X that two critical measures—a cease‑fire in Lebanon and the release of Iran’s blocked assets—remain unfulfilled, insisting they must be addressed before negotiations can proceed.

Ghalibaf, who is slated to attend the summit alongside Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, echoed the Iranian military’s joint command warning that its “fingers are on the trigger” after what it described as repeated “breaches of trust” by the United States and Israel.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump escalated rhetoric, telling the New York Post that the U.S. is loading ships with the “best weapons ever made” and will employ them “very effectively” if a deal is not reached. In subsequent Truth Social posts, he dismissed Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz as a “short‑term extortion” and claimed the Iranians are “alive today only to negotiate.”

The Trump administration credits Tuesday’s cease‑fire agreement with averting a larger U.S. escalation, yet it has not disclosed the exact framework agreed upon, noting it differs from Iran’s published 10‑point plan.

Analysts point to substantial gaps between the parties on several fronts: Iran’s future control of the Strait of Hormuz, the status of frozen Iranian assets, the trajectory of Iran’s nuclear program, and Israel’s ongoing offensive in Lebanon.

U.S. and Israeli officials assert that a Lebanese cease‑fire was never part of the deal, contradicting Iran and Pakistan’s position. Nonetheless, President Trump told an Israeli reporter that he urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make Israeli operations against Hezbollah “more low‑key” ahead of the talks.

Israeli strikes continued, killing at least 300 people nationwide on Wednesday—the deadliest day of the offensive—while Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported no slowdown in southern Lebanon’s fighting. Kuwait also reported intercepting seven drones launched from Iran into its airspace within 24 hours.

Despite the heightened rhetoric, U.S. Vice President JD Vance expressed optimism, stating he expects a “positive” outcome from the negotiations and that he has received “pretty clear guidelines” from President Trump. Vance emphasized that the United States is ready to extend an “open hand” to Iran if it negotiates in good faith, but warned that any attempt to “play us” would meet a “non‑receptive” negotiating team.

Vance’s leadership reflects a non‑interventionist strand of the Trump administration, stepping in as Iran’s trust in special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son‑in‑law Jared Kushner has eroded. Witkoff and Kushner previously headed two rounds of indirect talks on Iran’s nuclear program, both of which collapsed—first after Israel launched a 12‑day war on Iran in June 2025, and again after the latest war erupted on February 28.