US-Iran peace talks are under way in Pakistan

With oil markets rattled and the Strait of Hormuz still at the center of the crisis, US and Iranian negotiators met in Pakistan for their most senior talks in half a century, seeking a way to end a war that has already redrawn the region’s fault lines.

At the same time, US President Donald Trump said American forces had sunk Tehran’s mine-layers and begun reopening the strategic waterway.

“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favour to Countries all over the World,” Mr Trump posted, saying 28 Iranian mine-dropping vessels had been destroyed.

Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews dismissed the claim as “false news”.

As competing accounts swirled over events at sea, Iranian state TV said no US ships had entered the strait, the vital artery for global energy supplies that Tehran has effectively shut and Mr Trump has pledged to reopen.

A view of the media centre before the US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan

Mr Trump’s Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived today and held a two-hour meeting with Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi before taking a break, according to a source from mediator Pakistan.

The Iranian delegation had landed yesterday wearing black to mourn Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed during the six-week war.

They also brought shoes and bags belonging to students killed in the US bombing of a school beside a military compound, the Iranian government said.

The conflict has driven global oil prices sharply higher, left thousands dead and brought unprecedented strikes on Gulf Arab states.

Progress of negotiations unclear

With officials and media outlets in both countries offering sharply different versions of events, there was little sign before the talks that the two sides had narrowed their differences.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters ahead of the meeting that Washington had agreed to release frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks. A US official quickly rejected that account.

According to Iranian state TV and officials, Tehran is seeking not only the release of assets abroad but also control of the Strait of Hormuz, war reparations and a ceasefire across the region, including in Lebanon.

US delegation includes special envoy Steve Witkoff (C) and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (second left) as they are welcomed on arrival in Islamabad

Mr Trump’s stated aims have shifted over the course of the campaign, but at a minimum he is seeking to restore free passage for global shipping through the strait and to cripple Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme so it cannot build an atomic bomb.

US ally Israel, which joined the 28 February attacks on Iran that triggered the war, has also continued bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, where nearly 2,000 people have been killed.

Israel and the US have both said Lebanon does not fall under the Iran-US ceasefire.

Distrust between the two adversaries remains deep.

“We will negotiate with our finger on the trigger,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on state TV.

“While we are open to talks, we are also fully aware of the lack of trust; therefore, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.”

Tehran’s demands also include collecting transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

The worst disruption ever seen there has stoked inflation and slowed the world economy, effects that are expected to linger for months even if negotiators manage to reopen the waterway.

Even so, three Liberian- and Chinese-flagged supertankers passed through the strait today, shipping data showed, in what appeared to be the first vessels to leave the Gulf since last week’s US-Iran ceasefire.

Read more:Trump’s Iran post triggers new calls for removalThe Beirut shelter that rarely empties amid crisesIsrael-Lebanon ceasefire talks risk stalling out of sight

Fighting continues in Lebanon

Strikes hit southern Lebanon again this morning, Lebanese state media reported.

Reuters reporters heard an Israeli surveillance drone over the capital Beirut from last night into the following morning, while warplanes twice broke the sound barrier above the city.

Hezbollah said it had carried out several military operations against Israeli positions today, both inside Lebanese territory and in northern Israel.

Israeli and Lebanese officials are due to hold talks in the US on Tuesday.

For the US-Iran talks, Islamabad, a city of just over 2 million people, was placed under an extraordinary lockdown, with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops deployed across the streets.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to appear in public and is said by people close to his inner circle to be suffering severe facial and leg injuries sustained in the attack that killed his father.