By Saad Sayeed
ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Reuters) – Peace talks between Iran and the United States could resume soon in Pakistan, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was expected to arrive on Friday night, three Pakistani sources said.
Two of the sources, from the Pakistani government, said a U.S. logistics and security team was already in place for potential talks.
There was no immediate direct response from Washington or Tehran 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 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.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Jack Kim and Alex Richardson; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Peter Graff)
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