Middle East crisis live: US envoy and Trump’s son-in-law to travel to Pakistan amid hopes for renewed Iran peace talks

Witkoff and Kushner headed to Pakistan for Iran talks, White House saysIran requested an in-person meeting with the US government, according to reporting from Fox News, as US officials prepare a trip to Pakistan.On Saturday morning, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will be traveling to Pakistan for talks with the Iran’s foreign minister, the White House confirmed.The two will be heading to Islamabad, where Pakistan will be mediating talks with Iran.“Everyone will be on standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary, but first, Steve and Jared will be going over there to report back to the president, the vice president and the rest of the team,” Leavitt said on the Fox News show “America Reports.”The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi is expected in Islamabad on Friday to discuss proposals for restarting peace talks with the US.The White House also said that they have “seen progress” from the Iranian side of the negotiations in recent days.ShareUpdated at 19.21 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureShah Meer BalochIran has made no request for talks with the Americans and has so far completely rejected US requests for negotiations due to their excessive demands, Iran’s state media Tasnim News reported, rejecting the White House press secretary earlier remarks about Tehran’s request for talks.ShareQatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has been discussing the US-Iran ceasefire agreement in a phone call with Donald Trump, the Qatari state news agency reported.Al Thani added Qatar would continue coordinating with partners to support mediation efforts led by Pakistan.ShareRussia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, called for the resumption of talks to secure a rapid, sustainable agreement to the Middle East crisis, the Russian foreign ministry said.A statement said the ministers, in a telephone call, “expressed their shared view on the need to resume negotiations in order to promptly reach agreements on a long-term, sustainable resolution of the crisis, taking into account the legitimate interests of all countries in the region”.ShareThe US government imposed new sanctions on Iranian cryptocurrency wallets, according to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the secretary, around $344 million in cryptocurrency was frozen.ShareUS president Donald Trump told Reuters that Iran plans to make an offer aimed at satisfying U.S. demands, as talks were expected to resume in Pakistan.“They’re making an offer and we’ll have to see,” Trump said during a phone interview.Trump said he did not know what the offer would be yet.When asked who the US was negotiating with, Trump said: “I don’t want to say that, but we’re dealing with the people that are in charge now.”Trump plans to send special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to talks with Araqchi in Islamabad, and the pair will depart on Saturday morning, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday.ShareThe Iranian delegation that will be engaging in talks with the US government this weekend arrived in Pakistan, Reuters reports.Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will be meeting with the Iranian government representatives on Saturday.ShareUpdated at 20.35 CESTThe Strait of Hormuz’s closure is leading to a worsening crisis of food insecurity and malnutrition in countries that are already struggling, a representative from the World Food Programme told CNN today.“It’s becoming like a crisis within a crisis. The markets are being inflated, the prices are affected and that will continue to send shockwaves across the globe,” said Samer AbdelJaber, the World Food Programme’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.AbdelJaber estimates 45 million people will be food-insecure if the crisis continues.His comments come as a coalition of countries released a report on Friday, warning that food insecurity and malnutrition levels remain extremely high. The crises are concentrated in ten countries, the report from the Global Network Against Food Crises said.The ten countries recognized in the report are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen.ShareUpdated at 20.35 CESTWitkoff and Kushner headed to Pakistan for Iran talks, White House saysIran requested an in-person meeting with the US government, according to reporting from Fox News, as US officials prepare a trip to Pakistan.On Saturday morning, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will be traveling to Pakistan for talks with the Iran’s foreign minister, the White House confirmed.The two will be heading to Islamabad, where Pakistan will be mediating talks with Iran.“Everyone will be on standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary, but first, Steve and Jared will be going over there to report back to the president, the vice president and the rest of the team,” Leavitt said on the Fox News show “America Reports.”The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi is expected in Islamabad on Friday to discuss proposals for restarting peace talks with the US.The White House also said that they have “seen progress” from the Iranian side of the negotiations in recent days.ShareUpdated at 19.21 CESTThe Israeli military said its forces killed six Hezbollah fighters in a southern Lebanese town on Friday during a clash that included a firefight.According to the military, troops identified six militants operating in the town of Bint Jbeil, an area that saw heavy fighting before a ceasefire was declared last week.“Following the identification, an exchange of fire began between the terrorists and the soldiers, during which the soldiers eliminated two terrorists,” the military said.“Subsequently, the soldiers struck the structure from which the terrorists had been operating. In the strike, the four remaining terrorists were eliminated.”ShareUS president Donald Trump is sending special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with the Iran’s foreign minister, CNN reported on Friday, citing two administration officials familiar with the matter.Vice-president JD Vance is not currently planning to attend but he will be on standby to travel to Islamabad if negotiations progress, CNN said.ShareUpdated at 18.33 CESTIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah on Friday of trying to “sabotage” efforts to reach a peace agreement with Lebanon.“We have started a process to reach a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon, and it’s clear to us that Hezbollah is trying to sabotage this,” he said in his first remarks after a ceasefire with Lebanon was extended.The comments came as the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets in a south Lebanon village in response to a “ceasefire violation”, after earlier warning residents to evacuate the community.“A short while ago, the IDF struck military structures in the area of Deir Aames, from which rockets were launched toward the town of Shtula in Israel yesterday,” it said.“The structures that were targeted were used by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation to advance terrorist activities against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel,” it added.ShareJennifer RankinEU leaders have distanced themselves from a call by the German chancellor Friedrich Merz for the bloc to ease sanctions on Iran as part of a ceasefire deal.Merz indicated that the EU was willing to gradually ease sanctions on Iran if a comprehensive agreement was reached.“The easing of sanctions can be part of a process,” Merz said following talks with EU leaders in Cyprus. As Reuters reported, he said: “It is, so to speak, part of the contribution we can make to advance this process and, hopefully, lead to a lasting ceasefire.”But the heads of the EU institutions said such a move was premature. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told reporters that sanctions relief “should be conditional on verification of de-escalation” but also “a change to the repression of [Iran’s] own people”.She said: double quotation markThat was the reason why we adopted the sanctions regime in the first place, the behaviour of the regime. We should not forget 17,000 young people have been killed in the first month of this year. So the reason for that has to be ended before we can speak about lifting sanctions. The difference in tone was striking as von der Leyen, like Merz, is a German Christian Democrat, although she does not represent her country in the commission. Other groups outside Iran have estimated that up to 33,000 or more people were killed in the recent crackdown by the regime, before the US-Israeli airstrikes.The EU currently has 263 senior Iranians and 53 organisations on its blacklist, including the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the morality police, news agencies and prisons. It also imposes a ban on the sale of equipment or finance that could be used by Iranian authorities to repress their people.The EU also implements wide-ranging UN economic and financial sanctions on Iran intended to curb the regime’s nuclear programme. The European Council president António Costa said it was “too early” to speak about lifting sanctions, adding that “we don’t have a good experience with Iran”. He said the Iranian regime had failed to persuade the international community they would not develop a nuclear weapon, adding: double quotation markAnd we cannot ignore the nature of the regime, the violence of the regime against their people and the thousands of people they killed very recently. ShareThe immediate reopening of the strait of Hormuz without restrictions is “vital” for the world, European Council president Antonio Costa said Friday, after talks with regional leaders including from Lebanon and Syria.“The strait of Hormuz must immediately reopen without restrictions and without tolling, in full respect of international law and the principle of freedom of navigation. This is vital for the entire world,” Costa told a news conference in Cyprus.ShareIran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi will hold bilateral talks during a brief visit to Pakistan on Friday, two Pakistani sources aware of the talks told Reuters.Araqchi will discuss his side of the proposal for talks with the United States over the Iran war, which will then be conveyed to Washington, the sources said.ShareIndonesia once again strongly condemned an Israeli attack in Lebanon that resulted in the death of a fourth Indonesian peacekeeper, the foreign ministry said on Friday.The peacekeeper sustained severe injuries due to an artillery explosion from an Israeli tank on 29 March and the ministry announced on Friday that he has passed away. Three other Indonesian peacekeepers had also died due to the attack.Indonesia urged the UN to conduct a thorough, transparent and accountable investigation into the deaths of its Unifil peacekeepers.ShareInterim summaryHere’s a snapshot of the latest Middle East news to bring you up to speed. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth says transit is occurring in the strait of Hormuz, but limited and with risk. He says this is Iran’s fault for threatening vessels, including cruise ships. Iran’s foreign minister set to travel to Pakistan, raising hope for renewed talks to end war. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi will begin a trip on Friday that includes visits to Islamabad, Muscat and Moscow, Iranian state media said. Donald Trump has announced that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon would be extended by three weeks. Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office alongside the participants in the meeting, said he hoped the two countries’ leaders would meet during the additional three-week cessation of hostilities. A leaked Pentagon internal email proposes that the US should reassess its support for Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands because the UK did not do enough to assist the American bombing of Iran. The UK responded by saying that sovereignty of the Falkland Islands remains with the UK. In the same leaked email, the US outlined other “retaliatory measures” it felt was suitable due to what it deemed a lack of support from Nato - including suspending Spain from the alliance. It is not clear there is any mechanism to suspend countries from Nato. Human Rights Watch has called on Lebanon to join the international criminal court, after Israeli forces killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and wounded her colleague Zainab Faraj in an airstrike earlier this week. ShareIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he had received successful treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, without specifying when the treatment took place.After the publication of his annual medical report, he said he is “in excellent physical condition” after successful surgery for an enlarged benign prostate.In his social media post, he said he chose to undergo treatment because “when I’m given information in time about a potential danger, I want to address it immediately”.Treatment had “removed the problem and left no trace of it”, he added. Netanyahu said that he had delayed the release of the medical report by two months to prevent Iran from spreading “false propaganda against Israel“. In March, during the fighting with Iran, rumours that circulated on social media and aired on Iranian state media claimed that Netanyahu had died.View image in fullscreenIsrael’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photograph: Ilia Yefimovich/ReutersShare

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