Witkoff and Kushner travel to Pakistan as U.S.-Iran ceasefire push continues
President Donald Trump is dispatching Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for new talks involving Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, with the aim of restarting ceasefire discussions between the United States and Iran, the White House said. The planned negotiations for Saturday come as the wider war has snarled critical energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, left thousands dead across the region, and heightened international alarm.
Araghchi arrived in Islamabad late Friday, after posting online that his trip would focus on “bilateral matters and regional developments,” without naming the officials he would meet. Shortly after his arrival, Iran’s government signaled that its delegation would not hold direct negotiations with American government representatives during the visit.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmael Baqaei said on X, “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S.” Instead, Baqaei said Pakistani officials would convey messages between the delegations, and he thanked Pakistan for its “ongoing mediation & good offices for ending American imposed war of aggression.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News Channel that Witkoff and Kushner would meet with Araghchi. Leavitt said she was “hopeful that it will be a productive conversation and hopefully move the ball forward to a deal,” and she said Trump decided to send the envoys “to hear the Iranians out.” She also said Vice President JD Vance would not travel, but remains “deeply involved,” and would be willing to go to Pakistan “if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time.”
Leavitt said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the president’s national security team are on “standby” to fly to Pakistan if needed. She also said the president’s decision followed “some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” without providing details about what U.S. officials were hearing.
The indirect talks in Pakistan build on earlier efforts in Geneva. Araghchi and the two Trump envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on Feb. 27 about Tehran’s nuclear program, but left without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started the war against Iran.
Jones Act waiver extended as shipping routes strain
Separately on Friday, the White House said Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, aimed at making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas. The White House said Trump first announced a 60-day waiver in March to stabilize energy prices and ease shipments to the U.S. after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and it said new data showed significantly more supply reached U.S. ports faster under the waiver.
The cluster described oil prices reacting to the announcement, noting that Brent crude retreated after the extension, vacillating between $103 a barrel and more than $107. The story also said the Strait of Hormuz squeeze has rippled through global maritime trade flows, including through the Panama Canal.
Pakistan seeks renewed momentum as tensions linger in the strait
Pakistan has been seeking to reinject momentum into U.S.-Iran ceasefire discussions after Trump announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honoring Islamabad’s request for more time for diplomatic outreach. The renewed push has come as tensions remain high in the strait, which carries a strategic share of global energy shipments, and as each side maintains its posture.
Iran has kept pressure on traffic through the strait and attacked three ships earlier this week, the Associated Press reported, while the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. The article said Trump ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines, and it quoted U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling reporters on Friday that Iran has “an important choice, a chance to make a deal, a good deal, a wise deal.”
The Associated Press reported that a second U.S. aircraft carrier will join the blockade in a few days. It said Washington already has three aircraft carriers in the region—USS George H.W. Bush in the Indian Ocean, USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, and USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea—and that the force includes 200 aircraft and 15,000 sailors and Marines, according to U.S. Central Command.
The cluster also said it is the first time since 2003 that three American carriers have operated in the region simultaneously.
Casualties mount and Lebanon remains tense despite truce extensions
Even as ceasefires hold in some areas, the Associated Press described a growing toll since the war began. It cited authorities in saying at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and more than 2,490 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started. The article said 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and it reported that 15 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has also sustained casualties. UNIFIL said Friday that an Indonesian peacekeeper died of wounds sustained in an attack on his base on March 29, raising to six—the article said four Indonesians and two French—the number of force members killed since the war erupted.
Tensions continued in Lebanon even after Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. The Associated Press said Hezbollah has not participated in the diplomacy brokered by Washington.
The cluster said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement released by his office on Friday, hailed “a process to achieve a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon.” It also described Israeli military actions, including an earlier request that residents of the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames evacuate, with the Israeli army saying Hezbollah used the village to launch attacks against Israel.
In the days around the truce extension, the article said Israel’s military downed a drone over Lebanon after a Hezbollah-launched small surface-to-air missile, while Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone using a surface-to-air missile over the outskirts of Tyre.