US-Iran Talks Begin, Trump Says Hormuz Strait ‘Clearing’ Underway

US and Iranian negotiators held their highest-level talks in half a century on Saturday in Pakistan to try to end their war even as President Donald Trump said his military had sunk Tehran’s mine-layers and was clearing the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted, saying 28 Iranian mine-dropping vessels had been destroyed.

Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews called that “false news.”

Amid conflicting reports, Iranian state TV added that no US ships had crossed the strait, a crucial transit point for global energy supplies that Tehran has effectively blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen.

The waterway, which lies on Iran’s southern coast, was one of the main points on the agenda in Islamabad for the first direct US-Iranian talks in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump’s Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner flew in on Saturday and met Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for two hours before a rest, according to a source from mediator Pakistan.

The Iranian delegation had arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the six-week war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the US bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said.

“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” said another Pakistani source of the first round of talks.

PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS UNCLEAR

The war has sent global oil prices soaring, killed thousands of people and seen unprecedented hits on Gulf Arab states.

Amid conflicting versions from officials and media in both nations, the US and Iranian sides appeared to remain far apart.

Before the talks began, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the US had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks. But a US official swiftly denied that.

As well as release of assets abroad, Tehran is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz, payment of war reparations and a ceasefire across the region including in Lebanon, according to Iranian state TV and officials.

Trump’s stated goals have varied during the campaign, but as a minimum he wants free passage for global shipping through the strait and the crippling of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program to ensure it cannot produce an atomic bomb.

US ally Israel, which joined the February 28 attacks on Iran that launched the war, has also been bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, killing nearly 2,000 people.

Israel and the US have said Lebanon is not part of the Iran-US ceasefire.

Mutual distrust is high.

“We will negotiate with our finger on the trigger,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on state TV.

“While we are open to talks, we are also fully aware of the lack of trust; therefore, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.”

Tehran’s agenda includes aiming to collect transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

The biggest ever disruption there has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.

Nevertheless, three Liberian- and Chinese-flagged supertankers did pass through the strait on Saturday, shipping data showed, marking what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since last week’s US-Iran ceasefire.

STRIKES ON LEBANON

Strikes on southern Lebanon continued on Saturday morning, Lebanese state media said. Reuters reporters heard an Israeli surveillance drone flying over the capital Beirut from Friday night into the next morning and warplanes broke the sound barrier twice over the city.

Hezbollah announced it had conducted several military operations against Israeli positions on Saturday, both within Lebanese territory and in northern Israel.

Israeli and Lebanese officials plan talks in the US on Tuesday.

For the US-Iran talks, Islamabad, a city of just over 2 million people, was under unprecedented lockdown with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

Pakistan’s mediating role is a remarkable transformation for a nation that was a diplomatic outcast a year ago.

“This was a world war that Pakistan stopped. It played a big role and we should appreciate it,” said dry cleaner Nasir Khan Abbasi at a market in Islamabad. “I really like this and I feel great that Pakistan’s name is shining in the world.”