In the early hours of Saturday (April 11, 2026), an Iranian delegation, led by the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, reached Islamabad and was welcomed by Field Marshal Asim Munir and Foreign Minister Mohammed Ishaq Dar at the airport. They were followed by the arrival of the U.S. negotiating team, led by Vice President J.D. Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. The mediated talks between the U.S. and Iran are aimed at cementing a permanent ceasefire, following the two-week ceasefire declared earlier last week.

On March 24, The New York Times reported that the U.S. had sent Iran a 15-point plan to end the war, more than three weeks after the U.S., along with Israel, had started bombing the country. The publication said that the plan was handed over to the Iranian side by Pakistan’s Gen. Munir. It is believed that he had been in contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the powerful paramilitary force of Iran that emerged more powerful in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated by a U.S.-Israeli strike.

President Donald Trump said on Friday (April 10, 2026) that Iran has “no cards” in upcoming talks with the United States — apart from Tehran’s effective stranglehold on the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping channel.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realise they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social network.

U.S. President Donald Trump is tasking the member of his inner circle who has seemed to be the most reluctant defender of the conflict with Iran to now find a resolution to the war that began six weeks ago and stave off the U.S. President’s astonishing threat to wipe out its “whole civilisation.”

Vice-President J.D. Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, sets off on Friday (April 10, 2026) to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.