The White House announced on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is sending Vice President JD Vance and other senior negotiators to Pakistan for mediated talks with Iran this weekend aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire.Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during a press briefing that the talks will begin in Islamabad on Saturday morning local time, as uncertainty grows over whether the two-week ceasefire announced on Tuesday evening will hold.Vance will be joined in Pakistan by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, Leavitt said.“I can announce that the President is dispatching his negotiating team, led by the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, Special Envoy Witkoff, and Mr Kushner, to Islamabad for talks this weekend. The first round of those talks will take place on Saturday morning, local time, and we look forward to those in-person meetings,” Leavitt said.Leavitt also dismissed Iranian media reports claiming that Tehran had again closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israel’s intensified bombing of targets in Lebanon, saying such a move would be “completely unacceptable.”She added that Trump “wants to see the strait reopened immediately without limitation and that’s something we’re going to hold them to.”Leavitt further clarified that Lebanon is not part of the temporary ceasefire agreement, a point that appears to be a source of contention with Iran.Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has confirmed Tehran’s participation in upcoming talks where both sides are expected to hold direct negotiations aimed at ending weeks of intense hostilities following the outbreak of war.The diplomatic engagement comes after the US and Iran agreed to an immediate two-week ceasefire following prolonged conflict in the region.According to Iranian state media, the Iranian delegation will be led by Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a key figure in Tehran’s wartime leadership who has assumed strategic responsibilities since the early stages of the conflict.
