The Albany Gazette - Iranian delegation in Pakistan for talks with US, Vance en route

US President Donald Trump vowed meanwhile to have the Strait of Hormuz open "with or without" Iran's cooperation and said his top priority at the Islamabad talks was to ensure the Islamic republic cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Trump has dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians in a bid to reach a peace deal in the Middle East war following a two-week ceasefire that was agreed on Tuesday.

Vance warned Iran not to "play" Washington as he headed to Islamabad to represent the United States at the high-stakes meeting along with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

"If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand," Vance said. But "if they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive."

The leader of the Iranian delegation, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, was equally wary.

"We have good intentions but we do not trust," Iranian state TV quoted Ghalibaf as saying upon his arrival in Pakistan's capital. "Our experience in negotiating with the Americans has always been met with failure and broken promises."

Tehran has said the talks would only begin if Washington accepts its preconditions: a Lebanon ceasefire and the unfreezing of Iran's assets.

Israel is to hold discussions with Lebanon's government in Washington next week but Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said his country will not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israel "agreed to begin formal peace negotiations" with the Lebanese government, with which it has no diplomatic relations, Leiter said in a statement.

"Israel refused to discuss a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which continues to attack Israel and is the main obstacle to peace between the two countries," he added.

- 'Make or break' -

Israel launched massive strikes and a ground invasion of Lebanon after attacking Iran on February 28, in response to rocket fire into Israel from Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia Muslim movement and militant group.

Israel has said the ceasefire between the United States and Iran does not cover Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities say the weeks of hostilities have killed more than 1,950 people, with Israeli strikes killing more than 350 people Wednesday alone, the first full day of the US-Iran ceasefire.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said making progress at the Islamabad talks would be hard work.

"A temporary ceasefire has been announced, but now an even more difficult stage lies ahead: the stage of achieving a lasting ceasefire, of resolving complicated issues through negotiations," he said. "This is that stage which, in English, is called the equivalent of 'make or break.'"

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world's crude passes, will loom large in the peace talks in Islamabad and Trump told reporters the critical oil conduit would be open "fairly soon."

"We're going to open up the Gulf with or without them... or the strait as they call it," he said. "I think it's going to go pretty quickly, and if it doesn't, we'll be able to finish it off. We will have that open fairly soon."

Asked what a good deal with Iran would look like, Trump said: "No nuclear weapon. That's 99 percent of it."

Official sources say the talks will cover several sensitive points, including Iran's nuclear enrichment and the free flow of trade through the strait.

Trump posted Friday on his Truth Social network that Iran has "no cards" in the talks "other than a short-term extortion of the World by using International Waterways."

In Islamabad, all routes leading to the Serena Hotel, the expected venue for the talks, were blocked off with heavy security, while a large banner and digital signs along the expressway heralded the "Islamabad Talks."

In Tehran, a 30-year-old resident told AFP he was skeptical negotiations would be successful, describing most of what Trump says as "pure noise and nonsense."

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(D.Lewis--TAG)