Iran's Foreign Minister to Head to Islamabad for Possible Talks
By Reuters | 24 Apr, 2026

Abbas Araqchi was expected in Islamabad Friday for a possible resumption of peace talks that collapsed last week.

A child plays among the rubble of a building damaged by an Israeli strike, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Housh near Tyre, Lebanon, April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was expected in Islamabad on Friday, venue for past peace talks with the United States, raising hope that negotiations could resume after they collapsed earlier this week.

Iranian state media reported that Araqchi was beginning a trip that included visits to Islamabad, Muscat and Moscow. The report made no mention of peace talks with the U.S.

Two Pakistani government sources said Araqchi's visit could signal the resumption of peace talks with the United States, though this was not yet confirmed and Washington's response was still awaited. A U.S. logistics and security team was already in place for potential talks.

Araqchi "will tell us what instructions he has when he arrives. All this is speculative," one of the sources said.

There was no immediate direct response from Washington to the report, but U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking around the same time, told a briefing that Iran had a chance to make a "good deal" with the United States.

The Iranian report and the Pakistani sources made no mention of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, who was the head of its delegation at the only talks held so far, earlier this month.

The last round of peace talks had been expected on Tuesday but never took place, with Iran saying it was not yet ready to commit to attending and a U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance never leaving Washington.

President Donald Trump unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday at the 11th hour to allow more time to reconvene the negotiators.

LEBANON CEASEFIRE EXTENDED

On Thursday, Israel and Lebanon extended a separate ceasefire for three weeks at a meeting at the White House brokered by Trump. Iran considers maintaining the ceasefire in Lebanon a precondition for talks with the United States on the wider war.

Trump said on Thursday he was in no rush to reach an agreement and wanted it to be "everlasting," while asserting that the U.S. had an upper hand in a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important energy shipping route.

The United States has yet to find a way to open the strait, where Iran has blocked nearly all ships apart from its own since the start of the war eight weeks ago. Iran showed off its control this week by seizing two huge cargo vessels there.

Trump imposed a separate blockade of Iranian shipping last week, with U.S. forces boarding several Iranian ships in international waters. Iran says it will not reopen the strait until Trump lifts his blockade.

Only five ships crossed the strait in the last 24 hours, shipping data showed on Friday, compared to around 130 a day before the war. Those included one Iranian oil products tanker, but none of the vast crude-carrying supertankers that normally feed global energy markets.

Container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd also said one of its ships had crossed, without giving details.

Though Trump has said that U.S. forces have destroyed Iran's naval threat, the use of a swarm of small, fast boats to seize the container ships on Thursday underscored Tehran's evolving tactics in the strait as it countered U.S. interception of Iran-linked oil tankers and other vessels.

Pressure for a way out of the war has mounted on Trump, meanwhile, as his fellow Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections with U.S. gasoline prices high, inflation rising and his own approval ratings down.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Peter Graff)