Iran's negotiating team arrived in Islamabad on Friday for peace talks with the United States, even as Tehran insisted on measures it said needed to be addressed first, throwing last-minute doubt over the meetings.

US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the six-week war on Tuesday, just hours before a deadline after which Trump had threatened to destroy Iran's civilisation.

The ceasefire has halted US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. But it has not ended Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed a parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran's parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, and added that talks would not start until those pledges are fulfilled.

The Iranian delegation, led by Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, arrived in Islamabad, the nation's foreign ministry said. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the group consists of around 70 members, including technical specialists in economic, security and political fields as well as media personnel and support staff, reflecting what it described as the high sensitivity of the negotiations.

Speaking from Islamabad, Qalibaf said Tehran had goodwill towards negotiations but no trust in the United States, adding that Iran was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

While there was no immediate comment from the White House on the Iranian demands, Trump said in a social media post that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.

"The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!" he said.

US Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the US delegation, said he expected a positive outcome as he headed to Pakistan, but added: "If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive."

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a national address on Friday night, laid out the stakes of the talks.

"The permanent ceasefire is the next difficult phase, which is to resolve the complicated issues through negotiation. This, as called in English, is a make-or-break phase," Sharif said.

The hard line taken by Iran's leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday.

Khamenei, yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the war's first day, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

"We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country," he said.

Tehran's agenda at the talks includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgement of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran's ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait. (Reuters)



Edited by Cecil Wong