Newsman: President Donald Trump is sending Vice President JD Vance and other top negotiators to Pakistan for mediated talks with Iran this weekend aimed at cementing a permanent ceasefire, the White House announced on Wednesday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during a Wednesday afternoon press conference said negotiation talks between Iran and the United States are set in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad this weekend. Vice President JD Vance will be leading in-person peace talks in Pakistan this weekend, the White House said, as the United States’ ceasefire with Iran faced tests over Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the U.S. participation in the talks, which will be held in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad beginning on Saturday morning local time, during a press briefing, which came amid growing doubts that the two-week ceasefire announced on Tuesday evening will hold.
Vance will be accompanied by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for the negotiations in Islamabad, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt dismissed media reports from Iran that it had again closed down the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israel’s intensified bombing of targets in Lebanon, stating that taking such an action would be “completely unacceptable.”
Trump, she said, “wants to see the strait reopened immediately without limitation and that’s something we’re going to hold them to.”
She also said that Lebanon is not part of the temporary ceasefire agreement, which seems to be a point of contention with Iran.
Declaring that the nearly six-week operation has “achieved and exceeded its core military objectives,” Leavitt acknowledged that ceasefires “are fragile by nature” and cautioned that a long-term truce to end the war would take time.
Iranian state media said the country again closed the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday in response to Israeli bombardments on Lebanon. Leavitt called those claims “false” but reiterated Trump’s demand that the trade route is “reopened immediately, quickly and safely.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. is pushing Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without tolls amid reporting that Tehran wants to charge for passage through the strait.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt disputed a report in Iranian state media that the Strait of Hormuz is closed in response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
