US Vice President Vance heads to Pakistan for high-level talks

The fragile ceasefire in Iran faces mounting challenges as US Vice President JD Vance travels to Pakistan for talks with Iranian officials. Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire, while Kuwait reports multiple drone attacks allegedly linked to Iran. Despite denials from the Revolutionary Guard, tensions remain high across the Middle East.

Dubai: With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, US Vice President JD Vance headed Friday to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Many issues could derail the truce and the negotiations aimed at making a broader deal to stop the fighting permanently.

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Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the talks set for Saturday would not happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon.

And US President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Iran has no leverage except to restrict ship traffic in the strait, through which 20 per cent of the world’s traded oil once passed.

Kuwait, meanwhile, said it was targeted by seven drone attacks since Thursday that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though the Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim.

Preparations for the talks between Iran and the US appeared to be moving forward, with Vance boarding Air Force Two for the long flight to Islamabad.

Elsewhere, negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were expected to begin next week in the US capital, according to a US official and a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter.

Before his departure, Vance said he believed the negotiations with Iran will be “positive.”

But he added, “If they’re going to try and play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

In Islamabad, security forces locked down key parts of the Pakistani capital, erecting barricades along routes from the airport to the city before the delegations arrived.