War in the Middle East
April 11, 2026
Talks were continuing late into the night, according to Iranian state media and a White House official, suggesting the two sides remained engaged and still had topics to discuss.
Tyler Pager, Farnaz Fassihi, Elian Peltier, and Aaron Boxerman
An American delegation led by Vice President JD Vance met with senior Iranian negotiators on Saturday afternoon in Pakistan, officials from Iran and the White House said. It was a historic encounter between decades-old adversaries as they sought to broker peace after more than a month of war.
As night fell in Islamabad, few details about the talks had been released. But the length of the talks, which Iranian state media and a White House official said were continuing, suggested the two sides remained engaged and still had topics to discuss.
The negotiating session, mediated by Pakistan, was the highest-level face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which put the two countries on a collision course.
The United States and Iran agreed to a provisional cease-fire on Tuesday that suspended the fighting for at least two weeks. Iranian and American negotiators have been in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, attempting to turn the pause in fighting into a lasting peace.
The truce remains extremely brittle. Israel has kept up its ground invasion and airstrikes in Lebanon, part of a military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group, angering Tehran. Iran also maintains its grip over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit route for oil and gas, despite President Trump’s demand that it be free and open for shipping.
In a Friday address, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan said the talks in Islamabad were a “make or break” moment. Negotiators from the two countries have laid out red lines on Iran’s nuclear program that leave little clear path to a resolution.
Israel and the United States attacked Iran in late February, killing many of Iran’s top leaders and calling for the ouster of its government. Iran retaliated with attacks that have since drawn in much of the Middle East and battered the world economy. Iran also began blockading the Strait of Hormuz, sending global energy prices skyrocketing.
Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah has threatened to derail the truce. Iran had accused Israel of breaking the cease-fire by continuing to attack in Lebanon, leading Mr. Trump to ask Israel to rein in its assault.
Israeli fighter jets have not attacked the Lebanese capital of Beirut since Wednesday. But Israel has kept up its airstrikes in southern Lebanon, including on Saturday morning, according to Lebanon’s state media.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Negotiating team: Mr. Vance was joined in Islamabad by President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Iranian delegation, which includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, arrived earlier in the Pakistani capital. Read more about them here.
Strait of Hormuz: Mr. Trump said on social media on Saturday that the United States had begun “clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” where Iran laid mines during the course of the war. Only a handful of ships have passed through the strait since the cease-fire began this week. U.S. officials said one reason Iran had been unable to get more ships through was that it could not locate and remove all of the mines it laid in the waterway.
Israel and Lebanon: The countries’ ambassadors to the United States are expected to meet in Washington next week for direct talks, but a settlement to end the war in Lebanon is not expected imminently. More than a million people — roughly a fifth of the population — have been forced from their homes since the renewed war erupted last month between Israel and Hezbollah. Take a closer look in photos and video here.
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Friday said that at least 1,953 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, including 357 in a wave of Israeli strikes on Wednesday. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
Michael Crowley
9 minutes ago
Navy warships cross Strait of Hormuz for mine-clearing work, U.S. says.
A bulk carrier ship near the Strait of Hormuz in northern Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.Credit. Getty Images
As U.S. and Iranian officials met to negotiate an extended cease-fire, two U.S. Navy destroyers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday to begin an operation to clear mines from the critical waterway, the Department of Defense said.
In a statement, U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said that the two ships, the U.S.S. Frank E. Peterson and U.S.S. Michael Murphy, both guided-missile destroyers, entered the Persian Gulf through the strait in preparations to locate and clear naval mines that Iran has laid in the waters. The aim is to make the strait safe again for commercial shipping traffic.
Iran agreed to reopen the waterway to shipping traffic as part of a two-week cease-fire deal with the United States announced on Tuesday. But that process has been slow in part because Tehran cannot locate all the mines it laid and lacks the capability to remove them, according to U.S. officials, requiring American help with the process.
The Central Command statement added that more U.S. military resources, including underwater drones, would join the clearance effort “in the coming days.”
A spokesman for Iran’s military, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, strongly denied that the American warships had approached and entered the strait, and he said Iran’s armed forces still controlled the waterway, according to Iran’s state broadcaster. Tasnim News Agency, a semiofficial Iranian news agency, also claimed on Saturday “that there is currently no traffic in the Strait of Hormuz” and that Tehran had refused “permission” to an American destroyer that sought to traverse the strait. A U.S. official denied that any U.S. ships had avoided the strait because of Iranian opposition.
A choke point for energy and chemical shipments on which the global economy depends, the strait has been effectively closed for weeks, since Iran attacked several commercial ships and laid mines in the area in response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks. That has led to widespread increases in energy prices and slower economic growth forecasts. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait.
The Central Command announcement came as an American team led by Vice President JD Vance met with Iranian officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, to discuss a settlement to the U.S. and Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on Feb. 28.
Reopening the strait is a central U.S. demand. Iran has allowed some commercial ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz but has sought to collect tolls. Iranian officials now publicly insist that any peace deal should ensure Tehran future revenue from the waterway.
Tyler Pager
42 minutes ago
The U.S. delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance, has now been at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad for more than 12 hours. The White House has declined to provide any specific updates about the talks, beyond an official confirming two hours ago that they were ongoing. We do not know how much longer Vance plans to stay in Pakistan.
Credit...Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
Aaron Boxerman
1 hour ago
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, gave a 13-minute televised address about the war with Iran. He did not mention the ongoing high-level negotiations in Pakistan between the United States and Iran, part of a two-week cease-fire announced on Tuesday. In an implicit reference to the current truce, however, he told the Israeli public that “the battle was not yet over,” without elaborating.
Netanyahu used his address to push back against rising criticism inside Israel that the war with Iran had not accomplished any of its strategic goals. “We crushed their nuclear program, we crushed their missiles, and we crushed the regime.” Iran still has large stockpiles of enriched uranium which it could use to build a bomb, and American intelligence has cast doubt on how much Iran’s missile capability had been wiped out.
James C. McKinley Jr.
2 hours ago
The death toll in Lebanon from the current round of fighting with Israel that began in early March has reached 2,020, with at least 6,436 people wounded, the health ministry reported to the National News Agency.
Shirin Hakim
2 hours ago
Iranian state media reports that two rounds of talks have taken place in Islamabad between negotiating teams and a third is scheduled for tonight. A White House official has confirmed the negotiations are continuing.
Michael Crowley and John Ismay
3 hours ago
U.S. Central Command said two U.S. warships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday for the first time since Iran closed the waterway to shipping traffic last month. The two ships, the U.S.S. Frank E. Peterson and U.S.S. Michael Murphy, entered the Persian Gulf in advance of a mission to locate and clear any naval mines that Iran may have laid in the waters, Central Command said in a statement on Saturday. Iran denied the U.S. warships had passed through the strait, calling the claims “unrealistic,” the Iranian state broadcaster reported.
The U.S. statement said that more U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the operation in the coming days.
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