U.S. & Iran to resume peace talks Saturday

President Trump is dispatching special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Islamabad for a second round of peace talks Saturday with Iranian officials, the White House said Friday.

“Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “We hope progress will be made, and we hope that positive developments will come from this meeting, and we will see, and the president, the vice president, the secretary of State will be waiting here in the United States for updates.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Pakistan on Friday and is expected to meet with the U.S. delegation and present a new written response to the U.S. proposal for a peace deal.

The second round of talks was expected to take place earlier in the week, but the Iranians never confirmed their intention of attending despite the two-week ceasefire being just hours away from expiring.

President Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire on Tuesday, citing Iran’s “seriously fractured” leadership and giving them time to “come up with a unified proposal.”

Two of the biggest sticking points are Iran’s nuclear program and the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping route that remains effectively closed amid a U.S. naval blockade and Iranian attacks on commercial vessels.

“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Ms. Leavitt said. “The president has made the decision to send Steve and Jared to hear the Iranians out, and so we’ll see what they have to say this weekend.”

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