New tensions emerge before US-Iran war ceasefire talks in Pakistan

The United States delegation has departed for Saturday’s planned ceasefire negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Iran’s government confirmed its representatives have already arrived.

But new tensions between the two sides emerged on Friday that throw the upcoming talks — already shrouded in deep distrust — into doubt.

The ceasefire, announced on Tuesday, temporarily put a stop to the US and Israel war against Iran. Yet, since the deal was struck, conflicts have erupted over the 10-point Iranian proposal to pause the fighting.

Both sides have offered differing accounts of its terms after agreeing to them. One critical point of discord has been whether the ceasefire applies to Israel’s invasion and ongoing offensive in Lebanon.

On Friday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the disconnect could derail negotiations before they begin.

“Two of the measures mutually agreed upon between the parties have yet to be implemented: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran’s blocked assets prior to the commencement of negotiations,” Ghalibaf said in a post on the social media platform X.

“These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.”

Ghalibaf is one of the Iranian officials expected to attend the Pakistan talks, alongside Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Hours after his post on Friday, Iranian state media reported that delegation has arrived in Pakistan, adding that negotiations would begin only if Washington ⁠accepted Tehran’s “preconditions”.

The Iranian military’s joint command, meanwhile, warned it has its “fingers on the trigger” due to repeated “breaches of trust” by the US and Israel.

For his part, Trump re-upped his threats against Iran, telling the New York Post, “We’re loading up the ships with the best weapons ever made, even at a higher level than we used to do a complete decimation.”

“And if we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively,” he added.

Afterwards, in a pair of Truth Social posts, Trump signalled his administration planned to take a hard line going into the negotiations.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” he wrote, referring to Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.

“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”

Fighting in Lebanon continues

The Trump administration has credited Tuesday’s ceasefire agreement with averting a major US escalation in the war.

The US president had threatened a “whole civilization will die tonight” just hours before the deal was reached.

Still, the Trump administration has not yet released a clear picture of the initial framework it agreed to with Iran, though it has maintained that it is different from the 10-point plan published by Iran.

Analysts have said there are yawning gaps between the two sides over issues related to Iran’s future control of the Strait of Hormuz, frozen Iranian assets, the future of Iran’s nuclear programme and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

The US and Israel have argued that a ceasefire in Lebanon was not part of the deal, contradicting Iran and Pakistan.

Still, the US has signalled Israel may dial down its attacks. On Thursday, Trump told an Israeli reporter that he encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make Israeli military operations against Hezbollah more “low-key” in the run-up to the ceasefire talks.

Trump’s remarks came after Israeli attacks killed at least 300 people nationwide on Wednesday, in one of the deadliest days of the offensive.

Still, Israeli attacks continued on Friday. Al Jazeera correspondent Obaida Hitto reported from the city of Tyre that there is “no sign of any dialback or slowdown here in southern Lebanon”.

Kuwait, meanwhile, said it had “dealt with” seven drones fired from Iran into its airspace over the past 24 hours.

Vance predicts ‘positive’ outcome from talks

Despite the latest threats, US Vice President JD Vance said he expected “positive” results from the talks as he departed for Pakistan on Friday morning.

Though he is leading the US delegation, Vance added he had received “pretty clear guidelines” from Trump.

“If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we are certainly willing to extend an open hand, that’s one thing,” he said.

“If they’re going to try to play us, they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Vance, who is seen as a representative of the non-interventionist branch of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement, was tapped to lead the US delegation amid Iran’s distrust of US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Witkoff and Kushner had previously led two rounds of indirect talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The first round of negotiations was derailed when Israel initiated a 12-day war on Iran in June 2025, which ended with the US striking three of Iran’s key nuclear sites.

The second round was scuttled when the US and Israel launched the latest war on February 28.