US, Iran Hold Direct Peace Talks To End War

United States and Iranian officials yesterday started direct trilateral talks with Pakistan in Islamabad to end the conflict in the Middle East.

Officials from Washington and Tehran earlier spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Rarely has Pakistan found itself at the heart of such significant international diplomacy, the BBC’s  correspondent in Islamabad said.

As talks got under way, President Donald Trump said Iran was “losing big” in the conflict in a post on Truth Social.

Peace plans have been shared through the media, but no official points had been released at press time in Abuja yesterday.

The BBC outlined the key sticking points in negotiations, including whether Lebanon is included in the current ceasefire.  Meanwhile, Israel said it struck 200 Hezbollah targets in the past 24 hours.

Donald Trump repeated his assertion that the US had destroyed Iran’s military, including their entire Navy and Air Force.

He said, “The Strait of Hormuz will soon be open” and repeated what he said in previous posts that empty oil tankers were on their way to the US to “load up”.

Under the conditional two-week ceasefire with Iran, Trump said he had agreed to suspend the bombing if Tehran agrees to reopen the strait.

Tehran had effectively blocked the waterway after the US and Israel launched strikes on the country on 28 February.

It is one of the world’s busiest oil shipping channels, which about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually passes through.