Iran rules out direct talks as U.S. envoys head to Pakistan

Iran publicly ruled out direct negotiations with U.S. representatives even as Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner prepared to travel to Pakistan, exposing a diplomatic channel that was being carried through Islamabad rather than a formal negotiating table. In the Pakistani capital, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with army chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S. Iran’s observations would be conveyed to Pakistan.”

The White House described a more optimistic opening. Karoline Leavitt said the Iranians had reached out and asked for an in-person conversation, and said Witkoff and Kushner would head to Pakistan to hear them out. Leavitt said Vice President JD Vance, who had taken part in earlier talks in Islamabad, would stay in Washington but was “on standby” to rejoin the effort if needed. Trump separately said Iran would be “making an offer,” while adding that he did not yet know what it would be.

The stakes extended well beyond the table in Islamabad. The latest effort came under an indefinite ceasefire that had paused most fighting, but the economic damage was still spreading as global energy shipments were disrupted by the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan had spent days trying to pull both sides back into talks, and the capital was under a near-lockdown, with checkpoints, road closures, diverted traffic, troops, paramilitary commandos and police reinforcing the heavily fortified Red Zone and airport routes.

Araghchi said Tehran would keep engaging with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved,” underscoring how much of the diplomacy now depended on regional intermediaries. On the same day, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s airport for the first time since the conflict with the U.S. and Israel began about two months ago, with flights set for Istanbul, Muscat and Medina. The sequence showed an administration still testing the limits of pressure and outreach without a direct channel that both sides were willing to acknowledge in public.