Mediating countries are trying to organize a meeting between representatives of the United States and Iran this week in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
This was reported by Axios journalist Barak Ravid, citing an Israeli official.
He said the US would be represented by Donald Trumpʼs special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as possibly Vice President J.D. Vance. The Iranian side would likely be represented by Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and other officials.
Another source familiar with the talks told Axios that there appeared to be no direct talks between Ghalibaf and the Trump team yet, but Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey exchanged messages with each other on Sunday. Those countries could be mediators in the talks.
An Axios source noted that the participation of Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf in the negotiations is important "due to his high status and authority in power".
Earlier, Donald Trump said that Iran initiated talks with the United States this weekend, during which the parties allegedly reached an agreement on 15 points. One of them is Iranʼs refusal to give up nuclear weapons.
"They want to make a deal, and we are ready for it. They will never have nuclear weapons. They agreed to that," he said.
Trump also announced that the United States is postponing attacks on Iranian power plants and energy for five days — but only if the current meetings and discussions are successful.
According to the US president, Iran is represented in the negotiations by a "high-ranking person", and the US by Witkoff and Kushner. At the same time, the Iranian state news agency Fars wrote that there were no negotiations between Iran and the US, and called Trumpʼs words "a method of psychological warfare".
UPD at 18:55: Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf later wrote in X that there were no talks between Washington and Tehran. According to him, this is fake news "to manipulate the financial and oil markets and get out of the quagmire in which the US and Israel find themselves".
He added that "the Iranian people demand full and thorough punishment of the aggressors", and "all Iranian officials will stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved".
Meanwhile, after Trumpʼs statements, Brent oil prices fell by more than 13% to $96 per barrel.
Two days earlier, Axios reported that the Trump administration had begun discussing a possible peace deal with Iran. Iranʼs demands included a ceasefire, guarantees that war would not resume in the future, and compensation.
In return, the US wants Iran to make six commitments:
- to abandon the missile program for five years;
- zero uranium enrichment;
- to decommission the nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow, which the US and Israel bombed last year;
- strict external control over the creation and use of nuclear centrifuges and related equipment;
- arms control agreements with countries in the region limiting missiles to 1 000 units;
- to stop funding proxy forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, or Hamas in Gaza.
War in the Middle East
On the morning of February 28, the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. These attacks killed Iranʼs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and almost the entire military leadership of the country — about 40 key high-ranking officials. A new ayatollah was elected on March 8, and he was Mojtaba Khamenei (the son of the deceased Ali Khamenei).
Iran, in response to the US and Israeli attacks, has begun shelling US bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE and firing missiles at Israel. Some Iranian drones and missiles have hit infrastructure and residential areas in Arab countries.
The war has halted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea corridor between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. About a fifth of the worldʼs oil exports pass through it, tens of millions of barrels a day. Markets reacted immediately, sending oil, gas and precious metals soaring in price.
In particular, on March 9, world oil prices exceeded $100 per barrel for the first time in almost four years.
To keep prices down, the International Energy Agency has decided to release 400 million barrels of oil, and the US plans to release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve. On March 12, the US lifted sanctions on the purchase of Russian oil that was stuck at sea for 30 days, and a week later it gave permission for Iranian oil.
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