Trump to send envoys to Islamabad; Iran rules out direct talks

US envoys are set to travel to Pakistan on Saturday in a renewed attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations with Iran, even as Tehran made it clear it will not engage in direct talks with American officials during the visit.

The diplomatic push comes against the backdrop of an indefinite ceasefire that has largely halted active fighting, but has done little to ease the wider fallout. Global energy markets remain under strain, with shipments disrupted by the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Islamabad has been working to bring both sides back into some form of dialogue after US president Donald Trump earlier this week announced an open-ended extension of the ceasefire, acceding to Pakistan’s request for more time to pursue diplomatic outreach.

The White House said on Friday that Trump would dispatch his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi. But shortly after Araghchi landed in Islamabad, Iran’s foreign ministry indicated that any engagement would be indirect, with Pakistani officials relaying messages between the two sides.

Araghchi and the two US envoys had previously held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on 27 February over Tehran’s nuclear programme, but those discussions ended without an agreement. A day later, Israel and the United States launched military action against Iran.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president had decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out".

"We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt said, without elaborating on what that progress entailed.

Separately on Friday, the White House said Trump had approved a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, easing restrictions to allow non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas. The measure follows an initial 60-day waiver announced in March, aimed at stabilising prices and maintaining supply flows after the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly a fifth of global oil passes in peacetime.

Iran has maintained tight control over traffic through the strait, attacking three vessels earlier in the week. The US, meanwhile, has continued its blockade of Iranian ports, with Trump ordering the military to “shoot and kill” small boats suspected of laying mines.

Oil markets have reacted sharply. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, slipped on the latest developments but remained volatile, fluctuating between $103 and over $107 a barrel — still nearly 50 per cent higher than levels on 28 February, when the conflict began.

The disruption has rippled far beyond the Gulf, affecting global maritime routes, including traffic through the Panama Canal.

The human toll of the conflict continues to mount. Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran. In Lebanon, more than 2,490 people have died after fighting erupted between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah two days into the war, according to authorities.

In Israel, 23 people have been killed, along with more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, alongside 13 US service members deployed across the region.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has also suffered losses. UNIFIL said on Friday that an Indonesian peacekeeper died from wounds sustained in an attack on his base on 29 March, bringing the total number of peacekeepers killed since the war began to six — four Indonesians and two French.

Tensions in Lebanon remain high even after Trump announced on Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not taken part in the US-led diplomatic process.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement released on Friday, spoke of “a process to achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon”.

Even as that optimism was voiced, hostilities persisted on the ground. The Israeli military urged residents of the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames to evacuate, alleging that Hezbollah was using the area to launch attacks.

Israel said it had shot down a drone over Lebanon following the launch of a surface-to-air missile by Hezbollah. The group, in turn, claimed it had downed an Israeli drone over the outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre using a similar missile system.