Islamabad, Pakistan \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>With key differences in the Iranian and American positions seemingly intact, Pakistan is aiming for what officials describe as a realistic \u2013 if modest \u2013 outcome from the negotiations between the two warring nations set to commence in Islamabad on Saturday.<\/p>\n The aim: to get the United States and Iranian negotiators to find enough common ground to continue talks.<\/p>\n On Friday, US Vice President JD Vance left Washington for Islamabad, where he will lead the American team, which will also consist of President Donald Trump\u2019s chief negotiator Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. While Iran has not formally confirmed its representatives at the talks, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are expected to lead Tehran\u2019s team.<\/p>\n These high-level talks follow days after the US and Iran agreed to a Pakistan-mediated two-week ceasefire, and will be held exactly six weeks after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran with the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28.<\/p>\n Experts and sources close to the mediation effort said there was little expectation that a major breakthrough would be reached on Saturday. But by setting a more realistic ceiling \u2013 an agreement in Islamabad to continue deeper negotiations aimed at finding a lasting peace deal \u2013 Pakistan is hopeful it can help build on a truce that led to a collective sigh of relief globally.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan has succeeded in getting them together. We got them to sit at a table. Now it is for the parties to decide whether they are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reach an eventual solution,\u201d Zamir Akram, Pakistan\u2019s former ambassador to the United Nations, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Now, he added, it will aim to secure an agreement for the US and Iran to continue dialogue.<\/p>\n The US and Iranian delegations will land at the Nur Khan airbase outside Islamabad and then drive to the Serena Hotel, where they will stay, and where the talks will be held.<\/p>\n Though the two teams will be in the same hotel, they will not come face to face for the negotiations, officials said.<\/p>\n Instead, they will sit in two separate rooms, with Pakistani officials shuttling messages between them.<\/p>\n In diplomatic jargon, such negotiations are known as proximity talks.<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s experience with such a dialogue is not new. In 1988, Islamabad itself participated in the Geneva Accords negotiations on the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, where UN-mediated indirect talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan produced a landmark agreement.<\/p>\n Akram, who has represented Pakistan at the UN in Geneva from 2008 to 2015, said that history was relevant.<\/p>\n \u201cProximity talks have been used before. Pakistan itself participated in one in Geneva in 1988 on the Afghan issue,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cIf the parties did not trust Pakistan, they would not be here. The metric of success should be an agreement to continue this process in search of a solution. It will not happen in a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n In the days between the ceasefire announcement on April 7 and the arrival of the delegations in Islamabad, world leaders moved quickly to register support.<\/p>\n UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the ceasefire and expressed appreciation for Pakistan\u2019s role. Kazakhstan, Romania and the United Kingdom also issued statements endorsing Islamabad\u2019s mediation.<\/p>\n French President Emmanuel Macron called Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to congratulate him, while Turkiye\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also spoke to the Pakistani leader.<\/p>\n Analysts say these calls were not only expressions of goodwill but signals of international backing, aimed at strengthening Pakistan\u2019s hand in pushing\u00a0both Washington and Tehran to deliver results.<\/p>\n Sharif spoke with eight world leaders, including the emir of Qatar, the presidents of France and Turkiye, the prime ministers of Italy and Lebanon, the king of Bahrain and the chancellors of Germany and Austria.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who is also deputy prime minister, engaged with more than a dozen counterparts over the past two days and held an in-person meeting with China\u2019s ambassador in Islamabad.<\/p>\n In total, Pakistan\u2019s leadership made or received more than 25 diplomatic contacts in roughly 48 hours.<\/p>\n Salma Malik, a professor of strategic studies at Quaid-i-Azam University, said the scale of engagement reflected confidence in Pakistan\u2019s role.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two main parties showed confidence in Pakistan to act as a neutral agent, that is the first and most critical litmus test for any mediating country, and Pakistan passed it,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The most immediate threat to Saturday\u2019s talks lies outside the negotiating room.<\/p>\n Iran has framed Israeli strikes on Lebanon as a direct challenge to the ceasefire. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who spoke to Sharif earlier this week, warned that continued attacks would render negotiations meaningless.<\/p>\n Hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched its most widespread bombardment of Lebanon since the start of the conflict, killing more than 300 people across Beirut and southern Lebanon in a single day.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran could abandon the ceasefire entirely if the strikes continued.<\/p>\n Sharif, in a call with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on April 9, strongly condemned Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n Whether Lebanon is covered by the ceasefire remains contested. Pakistan has maintained that the truce extends across the wider region, including Lebanon, as reflected in Sharif\u2019s statement earlier this week.<\/p>\n Washington has taken a different view. US Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the American delegation, said in Budapest that Lebanon falls outside the ceasefire\u2019s terms, a position echoed by President Donald Trump and the White House.<\/p>\n Seema Baloch, a former Pakistani envoy, said the issue ultimately rests with Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cLebanon is key and Israel will use it to play the spoiler role,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cIt is now the US decision whether it will allow Israel, which is not seated at the negotiating table, to play that role.\u201d<\/p>\n There are, however, signs of limited de-escalation.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel was ready to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, focusing on disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement.<\/p>\n The announcement followed US pressure. Trump told NBC he had asked Netanyahu to \u201clow-key it\u201d on Lebanon.<\/p>\n However, Netanyahu made clear there was no ceasefire in Lebanon, saying Israel would continue striking Hezbollah even as talks proceed.<\/p>\n Salman Bashir, a former Pakistani foreign secretary, said Lebanon remains within the ceasefire\u2019s scope.<\/p>\n \u201cLebanon is very much part of the ceasefire, as was mentioned in the prime minister\u2019s statement,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cThe Israelis may be inclined to keep the pressure on Lebanon, but not for long if the US is keen on a cessation of hostilities, as it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond Lebanon, several other obstacles remain.<\/p>\n Washington is expected to push for verifiable restrictions on Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, including limits on enrichment and the removal of stockpiled material.<\/p>\n Tehran, in turn, is demanding full sanctions relief, formal recognition of its right to enrich uranium and compensation for wartime damage.<\/p>\n The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas passes in peacetime, remains a key pressure point, with Iran retaining the ability to disrupt maritime traffic.<\/p>\n Bashir said there could be movement on some of these issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThere may be an opening on the Strait of Hormuz, under Iranian control. Iran will not give up on the right to enrichment. If nothing else, there should be an extension of the ceasefire deadline,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Muhammad Shoaib, a professor of international relations in Islamabad, said progress would depend on movement on core issues.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth parties agreeing on the need to continue or even extend the ceasefire, while in principle agreeing on crucial points such as the Strait of Hormuz, Iran\u2019s right to enrichment and respect for sovereignty, will suggest that the first round is meaningful and successful,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The regional atmosphere has also been shaped by sharp rhetoric from some of Iran\u2019s Gulf neighbours.<\/p>\n The United Arab Emirates, which faced hundreds of missile and drone attacks during the conflict, has been among the most vocal.<\/p>\n Its ambassador to Washington wrote in The Wall Street Journal that a ceasefire alone would not be sufficient and called for a comprehensive outcome addressing Iran\u2019s \u201cfull range of threats\u201d.<\/p>\n Bahrain, meanwhile, presented a United Nations Security Council resolution on April 7 calling for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The measure received 11 votes in favour but was vetoed by Russia and China, with Pakistan and Colombia abstaining.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt are not expected to have a formal presence at the talks, despite being closely involved in pre-negotiation diplomacy. The four countries held meetings in Riyadh and later in Islamabad aimed at securing a pause in hostilities.<\/p>\n Israel, a party to the conflict, will also not be represented. Pakistan, like most Muslim-majority countries, does not recognise Israel and has no diplomatic relations with it.<\/p>\n There are, however, tentative signs of easing tensions ahead of Saturday\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n On Friday, as he was departing from Washington, Vance said that the US team was \u201clooking forward to the negotiations\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think it\u2019s going to be positive. We\u2019ll, of course, see. As the president of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we are certainly willing to extend an open hand,\u201d the US vice president said. \u201cIf they try to play us, they\u2019re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive. So we\u2019ll try to have a positive negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said that Trump had given the US team \u201csome pretty clear guidelines\u201d.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign minister spoke with his Iranian counterpart for the first time since the war started.<\/p>\n And Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council said on April 8 that discussions could continue for up to 15 days, suggesting readiness for a prolonged process.<\/p>\n Akram, the former envoy, said the benchmark for success was clear.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they need to agree is that they will find a solution, and that in itself would be a step in the right direction,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cFinding a long-term solution will take time. It will not happen in a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n Malik, the academic in Islamabad, said Pakistan\u2019s expectations remained modest.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Pakistan expects is breathing space, an opportunity for peace. It is not expecting anything big. It is a small wish, but realising it will be very difficult,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Islamabad, Pakistan \u2013\u00a0With key differences in the Iranian and American positions seemingly intact, Pakistan is aiming for what officials describe as a realistic \u2013 if modest \u2013 outcome from the negotiations between the two warring nations set to commence in Islamabad on Saturday. The aim: to get the United States and Iranian negotiators to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The \u2018proximity format\u2019<\/h2>\n
Building diplomatic momentum<\/h2>\n
The Lebanon problem<\/h2>\n
![\"Rescuers](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-09T070335Z_83446969_RC2HLKANB9AW_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-CRISIS-LEBANON-ISRAEL-1775793524.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514&quality=80\")
Stumbling blocks<\/h2>\n
A slight easing<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"