Pakistani official claims talks are 'moving positively'

Iran says talks with US extended into Sunday as Trump claims ‘no difference’ to him if deal reached

Tehran claims ‘serious disagreements’ remain after 15 hours of negotiations lasting into the night, as president insists Washington has won ‘regardless’ of outcome in Pakistan

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was not bothered about the outcome of US-Iran talks in Pakistan, insisting the United States had come out ahead from the war, even as Tehran said negotiations aimed at securing a deal to end the six-week war between the two countries before a two-week ceasefire expires were set to extend into Sunday.

The talks in Islamabad stretched into the early hours of Sunday morning following over 15 hours of marathon negotiations, even as Iran warned that Washington was making “excessive demands” over the Strait of Hormuz that could undermine Pakistan’s peacemaking efforts.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said after 3 a.m. local time that the third round had ended, saying “serious disagreements” still remained. State TV reported that negotiations would continue on Sunday, and Tehran’s government said the negotiations would continue despite the remaining differences.

However, a White House official briefed reporters around 5 a.m. Islamabad time that the talks were ongoing: “15 hours and counting.”

The trilateral direct negotiations were taking place with host Pakistan in Islamabad, a senior White House official said, a departure from recent practice where both sides held talks via a mediator while seated in separate rooms.

The US delegation was being led by Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, making it the highest level of American contact since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Iranian delegation, composed of more than 70 members, was being led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, joined by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Security was tight in the Pakistani capital on Saturday, with a heavy police and paramilitary presence on the streets and road diversions around the “red zone” where government and diplomatic buildings are located.

A Pakistani official told AFP that talks were “progressing in the right direction” after two rounds.

“I can say that discussions are moving positively and the overall atmosphere is cordial,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But as the third round began, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that it appeared to be the “last opportunity” to reach a common framework, due to the “excessive US demands.”

Shortly after this assessment from the Iranian news outlet, Trump told reporters in the US that “whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me.”

“The reason is because we’ve won,” he said. “We’re in very deep negotiations with Iran. We win regardless. We’ve defeated them militarily.”

‘Clearing out’

The president also repeated his earlier statement that the US had started “clearing out” the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s crude passes in peacetime.

The US military said earlier on Saturday that two US Navy warships had passed through the key waterway to begin clearing it of mines.

“We have minesweepers out there. We’re sweeping the strait,” Trump said.

“We’ll open up the strait even though we don’t use it, because we have a lot of other countries in the world that do use it that are either afraid or weak or cheap,” the US president said.

The Iranian military denied that any American vessels had entered the waterway.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing data by Lloyd’s List Intelligence, that 100 ships have crossed the strait over the past month. The outlet said, citing unnamed brokers and ship owners, that non-Iranian vessels have been negotiating toll payments with Iranian authorities that can go up to $2 million for a single ship.

Iran has said that any agreement to end the war must include the unfreezing of sanctioned Iranian assets as well as an end to Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which Vance has said will not be up for discussion in Islamabad.

Iranian state television’s correspondent at the talks said progress had been made on these issues, giving Iran the confidence to proceed. A US official denied reports that Washington had agreed to unfreeze Iran assets held in Qatar.

Despite the purported progress, the warring parties made no attempt to hide their mutual suspicion.

“Our experience in negotiating with the Americans has always been met with failure and broken promises,” Ghalibaf said, shortly after landing in Pakistan.

The Iranian delegation arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for former supreme leader Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the US bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said.

‘Make or break’

Vance said before leaving the US that if the other side was “willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand.”

But he said the negotiating team would not be receptive “if they’re going to try to play us,” he added.

The ceasefire is already under strain, notably from Israel’s continued strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which Iran and Pakistan insist is covered under the current truce, while Israel and the US saying otherwise.

Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Saturday killed 18 people, bringing the total death toll from Israeli strikes since the war broke out past 2,000, although they did not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Reflecting the high stakes, Tehran residents told the Associated Press they were skeptical yet hopeful about the talks after weeks of airstrikes left destruction across their country of some 93 million people.

“Peace alone is not enough for our country because we’ve been hit very hard, there have been huge costs,” 62-year-old Amir Razzai Far said.

A 30-year-old resident of the Iranian capital told AFP he was skeptical negotiations would be successful, describing most of what Trump says as “pure noise and nonsense.”

The negotiations will be closely watched by other key regional players, with Egypt and Turkey having helped with mediation, along with China, the source said.