{"id":208796,"date":"2026-04-25T06:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-iran-talks-to-resume-in-pakistan-this-weekend-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:04:26","slug":"us-iran-talks-to-resume-in-pakistan-this-weekend-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-iran-talks-to-resume-in-pakistan-this-weekend-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Iran talks to resume in Pakistan this weekend – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a> is sending a U.S. delegation to Pakistan to meet with Iran’s top diplomat for a new round of direct talks between the warring countries, the White House announced Friday.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner will depart for Islamabad on Saturday and are expected to meet with Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Vice President JD Vance<\/a>, who led the first U.S. delegation sent to Pakistan<\/a> earlier this month, is on “standby” to join Witkoff and Kushner if they feel it’s a good use of his time, Leavitt said.
The announcement comes amid an intensifying standoff between the two countries, as the U.S. enforces a maritime blockade on Iranian ports and ships<\/a>, and Iran resumes attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Both countries have seized ships in recent days and blamed each other for the escalations.
Michael Loria
A senior official at the U.S. State Department laid out the country\u2019s legal justification for the Iran war, saying the United States is involved “at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally.”
“Epic Fury is only the latest round of an ongoing international armed conflict with Iran,” State Department Legal Adviser Reed D. Rubinstein wrote in a department publication<\/a>, using the White House\u2019s chosen code name for the military mission. “The United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States\u2019 own inherent right of self-defense.”
According to the Office of the Legal Adviser assessment, the war is in keeping with international law based on “Iran\u2019s malign aggression over decades, particularly in Iran\u2019s escalatory attacks against the United States, Israel, and others in the region for years.”
The assessment comes as over 100 legal scholars<\/a> signed a letter saying the U.S. decision to launch strikes on Feb. 28 that took out the country’s supreme leader and began the war violated the U.N. Charter on the use of force.\u00a0
State Department officials trace the roots of the ongoing conflict back to the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that gave rise to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The legal assessment cites numerous instances of Iran-linked terrorist attacks leading to the deaths of hundreds of Americans since 1983.\u00a0
Most recently, the assessment cites attacks by Iranian allies on U.S. targets in the Middle East, anti-Israel government rhetoric and the country\u2019s “illicit” nuclear program.
Michael Loria
The Chinese Embassy to the United States responded to the Treasury Department\u2019s move to sanction a private Chinese oil refinery<\/a> company by telling the U.S. to “stop politicizing trade.”
“We call on the U.S. to stop politicizing trade and sci-tech issues and using them as a weapon and a tool and stop abusing various kinds of sanctions to hit Chinese companies,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy told USA TODAY Friday evening. “China will take necessary steps to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies.”
U.S. Treasury Department officials on Friday placed sanctions<\/a> on Hengli Petrochemical, a major Chinese private oil company that before the war refined some 400,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil daily, experts told USA TODAY.
The embassy spokesperson added that China is interested in restoring peace to the region.
“Since the ongoing conflict in Iran broke out, China has been actively working for peace,” the spokesperson said. “Normal trade between countries should not be disrupted or harmed.”
USA TODAY previously reported Chinese officials played a key role<\/a> in brokering the ceasefire between the United States and Iran.\u00a0
Michael Loria
U.S. Treasury Department officials announced they are sanctioning a Chinese oil refinery for playing a “vital role in sustaining Iran’s oil economy.”
Hengli Petrochemical Dalian is an independent, or teapot, oil refinery that is “one of Iran\u2019s largest customers, having purchased billions of dollars\u2019 worth of Iranian petroleum,” Treasury officials said<\/a>.\u00a0
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday<\/a> the department is sanctioning the Hengli company along 40 shipping firms and vessels in an effort to impose “a financial stranglehold on the Iranian regime.”
The sanctions restrict the financial transactions of the entities that are targeted. Violations can result in civil or criminal penalties, the department said.
It\u2019s unclear what effect the sanctions will have. Experts say the company is a significant player in the refining of Iranian oil but sanctions “could also simply divert those barrels to other independent refiners,” according to Hugh Daigle, a petrophysics professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
“There is already a shortage of crude oil in Asia, so whatever doesn\u2019t go to Hengli will easily go elsewhere,” Daigle said. “Overall I think the effect will be negligible.”
The Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering researcher said he expects the sanctions on shipping companies and vessels will also have “little effect.”\u00a0
Bessent announced the United States will also sanction cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran worth about $344 million<\/a>.
USA TODAY has reached out to Hengli for comment.\u00a0
Michael Loria
Iranian officials participating in the upcoming peace talks with the United States have begun arriving in Pakistan.
Iran Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has landed in Islamabad, the capital of the Islamic republic bordering Iran, the Pakistani government said<\/a>.
According to the Pakistani government, Araghchi is expected to meet with senior Pakistani officials to discuss “ongoing efforts for regional peace and stability.”
Iranian state media reported the country\u2019s foreign minister had not scheduled talks with U.S. officials yet, Reuters reported.\u00a0
The arrival of the senior Iranian negotiator marks a step forward in peace talks after both Iranian and American negotiators aborted talks last weekend.
U.S. envoys will head to Pakistan Saturday<\/a>, the White House said.
Michael Loria
Iran plans to make an offer aimed at satisfying the White House\u2019s demands, President Trump told Reuters in a phone interview.
“They’re making an offer and we’ll have to see,” Trump said, according to a report from the news wire service on Friday.\u00a0
The president declined to say who specifically the White House was dealing with, saying only “we\u2019re dealing with the people that are in charge now.”
Trump\u2019s update on the negotiations process comes as talks between the United States and Iran are expected to resume in Pakistan over the weekend.
Zac Anderson
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not say whether the Iranians have submitted a formal proposal ahead of a new round of in-person peace talks.
Asked Friday if there is a formal offer from Tehran that is prompting the Trump administration to send top officials to Pakistan for talks, Leavitt said there has been “progress” but did not directly answer.
“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Zac Anderson
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration is sending special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan Saturday to engage in talks with Iranian officials over ending the war, resuming a peace process that had stalled in recent days.
“Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House Friday. “We hope progress will be made and we hope positive developments will come from this meeting.”
Vice President JD Vance, who has been leading the talks for the United States, is on “standby” to go to Islamabad “if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time,” Leavitt said.
Bart Jansen
A 57-year-old Iranian man was indicted on charges he smuggled undocumented immigrants into the United States, the Justice Department announced April 24.
Jafar Tafakori was arrested in Colombia at the request of the United States. He allegedly charged as much as $30,000 per person to bring primarily Iranian nationals into the country from late 2022 to mid-2024, according to the indictment.
\u201cSecuring our borders and stopping alien smuggling is a top priority for the Department of Justice,\u201d Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. \u201cThis defendant allegedly transported many illegal aliens into the United States, exploiting our nation\u2019s immigration laws and depriving our immigration officials the ability to vet and review the individuals entering our communities.\u201d
Christopher Cann
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday said that the purpose of his trip to Pakistan, Oman and Russia is to “consult on regional developments.”
“Embarking on timely tour of Islamabad, Muscat, and Moscow. Purpose of my visits is to closely coordinate with our partners on bilateral matters and consult on regional developments,” he said on X<\/a>. “Our neighbors are our priority.”
Christopher Cann
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 34 ship have followed U.S. orders to turn around since the blockade went into effect on April 13.
At a news conference on Friday, Caine described how the U.S. seized one Iranian-flagged vessel that ignored orders over the weekend, leading American forces to fire precision rounds at the engine room, disabling the ship. U.S. Marines then boarded the ship via helicopter.
\u201cThe ship and its crew remain safe in U.S. custody today,\u201d Caine said, adding that the blockade is growing stronger as more military assets move into the Persian Gulf region.
Andrea Riquier
Brent crude oil traded above $105 a barrel Friday morning as a resolution to the Middle East war remained elusive.
Gas prices also remained elevated: a gallon of unleaded averaged $4.042 a gallon, GasBuddy\u2019s real-time tracker showed. That\u2019s down a few cents compared to yesterday, but more than 88 cents above last year\u2019s average.
\u201cApparently, the US stock market can live with $100 oil for now,\u201d wrote Ed Yardeni, a well-known economist and financial strategist, in a Thursday note. That\u2019s in part because traders continue to assume the oil price will decline from here, he added.
Still, what\u2019s good for Wall Street may not be good for Main Street. A reading of trading patterns<\/a> on Friday morning shows investors think Brent crude will cost $85 a barrel by the fall \u2013 a big jump from levels it held before the war began.
Christopher Cann
Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas\u00a0Araghchi is traveling to Pakistan, Oman and Russia, Iranian state media reported.
Araghchi and a small delegation were expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday where future peace talks with the U.S. may take place, Reuters and the Associated Press reported, citing Pakistani officials.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether the U.S. would send a delegation to meet with Araghchi.
A second round of negotiations were scheduled earlier this week. U.S. officials called off the trip as Iranian officials would not confirm whether they would participate, citing frustration with the U.S. naval blockade.
President Donald Trump then extended the ceasefire until the Iranian government comes up with a \u201cunified proposal.\u201d
Bart Jansen
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said he has \u201clawyers all over the place\u201d to authorize military action in the war on Iran, despite criticism from Pope Leo XIV and others that the fighting doesn’t comply with the doctrine for a “just” war.
\u201cThe Pope\u2019s going to do his thing. That\u2019s fine,\u201d Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. \u201cWe know what our mission is. We know what authority we have.\u201d
Hegseth said lawyers review how the military is acting under Trump’s orders and the Constitution, and why.
\u201cWe\u2019ve got lawyers all over the place looking at what we\u2019re doing and why we\u2019re doing it, and giving us every authority necessary under the Constitution and our laws to execute it,\u201d Hegseth added. \u201cWe feel very confident across the spectrum about what we\u2019re doing and why we\u2019re doing it, and the legal justification that we\u2019re following in order to do it.\u201d
Francesca Chambers
Hegseth took another slap at U.S. allies who’ve refused to help police the Strait of Hormuz, calling European and Asian nations free riders at a morning news conference.
“We’re not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do and might want to start doing less talking, and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat. This is much more their fight than ours,” Hegesth said, referring to the multinational planning conferences that have been led by the U.K and France on reopening the strait.
Bart Jansen
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the U.S. blockade of Iran is \u201cironclad\u201d while Iran acts like \u201ca gang of pirates\u201d to seize ships from other countries.
\u201cWe are in control. Nothing in, nothing out,\u201d Hegseth said of shipping with Iranian ports. \u00a0\u201cA blockade for as long as it takes.\u201d
Iran seized two container ships earlier in the week. Hegseth said the seizures happened with small speedboats armed with AK-47s, and he criticized Iran’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“Iran\u2019s battered military, the IRGC specifically, has been reduced to a gang of pirates with a flag,” Hegseth said. \u201cThey don\u2019t control anything. They\u2019re acting like pirates, acting like terrorists.\u201d
Bart Jansen
A clear majority of 77% of registered voters in America blame Trump for surging gas prices ahead of the November midterm elections in Congress, according to a new Reuters\/Ipsos poll.
The criticism was shared across the political spectrum, with 55% of Republican voters, 82% of independents and 95% of Democrats blaming Trump, the poll found. More than half of voters \u2013 58% \u2013 said \u00a0they were less likely to support candidates in November who support Trump\u2019s war with Iran.
“Right now, it\u2019s bad. People are upset,” said Sarah Chamberlain, strategist and president of the Republican Main Street Partnership that advocates for conservative lawmakers. But she added the party has \u201ca really good shot\u201d if the situation with Iran is resolved and prices drop down by summer.
Trump has acknowledged the higher prices but argued the short-term costs are worth preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Bart Jansen
Only five ships, including one\u00a0Iranian oil products tanker, traveled through the Strait of Hormuz in the 24 hours ending at 7 a.m. on April 24, according to shipping data,
The shipping represents a sliver of the 140 daily ships before the war began Feb. 28. The near shutdown comes after Tehran seized two container ships and as the United States blockades Iranian ports.
“For most shipping companies, they will need a stable ceasefire and assurances from both sides of the conflict that the Strait of Hormuz is safe to transit,” said Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at shipping association BIMCO. “In the meantime, shipping will be restricted to using routes close to\u00a0Iran\u00a0and Oman.\u201d
Bart Jansen
The military\u2019s Central Command, which oversees the war in Iran, reinforced its show of strength in the Middle East with a social media post<\/a> promoting the unusual arrangement of three aircraft carriers operating in the same region at the same time.
The command said it was the first time in decades that such large ships \u2013 the USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS George H.W. Bush \u2013 were sailing in the same region. The ships carry more than 200 aircraft and 15,000 sailors and marines.
The show of force comes during a ceasefire between the United States and Iran, while Trump waits for Tehran’s leaders to respond to peace proposals. Trump complained April 23 that officials in Iran can’t agree on a unified proposal because so many top leaders have been killed since the war began Feb. 28.
Bart Jansen
Trump said Israel would have to defend itself if Hezbollah attacks them, and that negotiations to end the war in Iran would require Tehran to stop funding the terror group.
\u201cIsrael is going to have to defend itself if they\u2019re shot at \u2013 and they will,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI would never say that they can\u2019t. It would be nice if they didn\u2019t have to bother with that.
\u201cThey\u2019re going to do it carefully and they\u2019ll be surgical as opposed to beyond surgical,\u201d Trump added.
Trump also said cutting off Iran\u2019s funding for Hezbollah is a requirement for peace with Tehran.
Terry Collins
A third U.S. aircraft carrier has arrived in the broader Middle East for possible use in the ongoing\u00a0naval blockade of Iranian ports<\/a>.
The\u00a0USS George H.W. Bush<\/a>\u00a0arrived in the Indian Ocean on April 23, according to\u00a0the\u00a0U.S. Central Command<\/a>. The carrier now joins the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea and the USS Abraham Lincoln in the northern Arabian Sea.
The carrier’s arrival comes amid President Donald Trump’s extended ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0on the war after U.S.-Iranian peace talks in Pakistan\u00a0broke down<\/a>. Each country has blamed the other for the stalemate. Meanwhile, the carriers are available if Trump\u00a0decides to\u00a0resume attacks<\/a>\u00a0on Iran.
The president said in a Thursday\u00a0Truth Social post<\/a>\u00a0that “a Deal will only be made when it\u2019s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World.”<\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump is sending a U.S. delegation to Pakistan to meet with Iran’s top diplomat for a new round of direct talks between the warring countries, the White House announced Friday.U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner will depart for Islamabad on Saturday and are expected to meet with Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}