Top Iranian official heads to Pakistan for talks as US waits for ‘good deal’ – National
Iran’s top official was headed to Pakistan on Friday, where officials are trying to get the United States and Iran to meet for a second round of ceasefire talks.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that he is on his way to Pakistan, Oman and Russia on a trip focused on “bilateral issues and regional development.”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Araghchi’s trip to Pakistan and whether the US delegation would go there.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at the same time as the news, told the forum that Iran has the opportunity to make a “good deal” with the United States.
The trip comes as the world is on the brink of a war that has attacked vital energy supplies in the Strait of Hormuz, clouded the global economy, and left thousands dead in the Middle East.
Earlier, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that Araghchi was traveling to Pakistan with a small government delegation. These officials spoke on the condition that they not be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Islamabad wanted to reinvigorate the talks between Iran and the United States, which were supposed to resume this week but did not happen.
Trump extends Jones Act rollout for 90 days
Separately on Friday, the White House said President Donald Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, which makes it easier for non-US ships to transport oil and natural gas after the war.
Trump first announced the 60-day moratorium in mid-March, a move seen as helping to stabilize energy prices and facilitate more shipping to the US following the successful closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
A post on social media by a White House press aide said: “New information compiled since the release revealed that many of the supplies were able to reach American ports quickly.”
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The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, retreated on the news, falling to around $104 a barrel. It had previously reached above $107, a level nearly 50% higher than where it was in Feb. 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran to start a war.
Pakistan is moving forward with communication efforts
Pakistan has been trying to get US and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honoring Islamabad’s request for more time for negotiations.
That has not eased tensions along the vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s peacetime oil and natural gas is shipped.
Iran has been cracking down on traffic, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the US has maintained blockades on Iranian ports and ordered the military to “shoot to kill” small boats that might lay mines.
“Iran has an important decision, an opportunity to make a deal, a good deal, a smart deal,” Hegseth told reporters on Friday. He said the owner of a second US airliner would join the blockade in a few days.
Hegseth added that the US is “not worried” about the deal with Iran, and repeated Trump’s earlier words of “all the time in the world.”
“Iran knows that it still has an open window of strategic choice … at the negotiating table. All it has to do is give up its nuclear weapons in reasonable and verifiable ways,” he said.
Washington now has three aircraft carriers in the region after the USS George HW Bush arrived in the Indian Ocean this week. The USS Abraham Lincoln is in the Arabian Sea and the USS Gerald R. Ford is in the Red Sea.
It is the first time since 2003 that three American carriers have operated in the region at the same time. The force includes 200 aircraft and 15,000 sailors and marines, US Central Command said.
The number is increasing as the fighting is stopped
Since the start of the war, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,290 people have been killed in Lebanon, where fresh fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah broke out two days into the war, according to authorities.
Additionally, 23 people died in Israel and more than a dozen in the Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US personnel in the entire region were killed.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has also protected the wounded in the latest Israeli-Hezbollah fighting.
UNIFIL said on Friday that an Indonesian peacekeeper died of wounds during an attack on his base on March 29, bringing to six – four Indonesian and two French – the number of soldiers killed since the war began.
Conflicts continue in Lebanon despite the additional agreement
The situation in Lebanon is still tense a day after Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend the agreement between Israel and Hezbollah for three weeks.
Hezbollah has not been part of the diplomacy that Washington is doing between the two governments.
The Israeli army asked residents of the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames to leave, saying that Hezbollah was using the village to attack Israel.
Israel’s military said it downed a drone in Lebanon following the launch of a small surface-to-air missile by Hezbollah. The terrorist group, on the other hand, said it shot down an Israeli aircraft with a surface-to-air missile at the southern port of Tyre.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak in Washington, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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