Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Pakistan as Trump Sends Witkoff and Kushner; Islamabad Round 2 Talks Set to Begin Despite Iran's Blockade Precondition

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on April 24 for bilateral meetings with Pakistan's Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir; Trump dispatched Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for a second round of US-Iran talks; Iran maintained its precondition that the US naval blockade must be lifted before substantive negotiations, while oil prices fell on reports of the diplomatic overture.

April 24, 2026 — Day 56 of the Iran War — marked the reopening of the direct diplomatic channel between Washington and Tehran that had been severed since the first Islamabad round on April 11-12. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday with a small delegation, in what both Pakistani and Iranian officials characterised as a "bilateral" visit — preliminary meetings with Pakistan's mediation team before direct US engagement. Araghchi spoke by phone with Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday morning — the third such call between the two officials since Sunday — with Dar emphasising "the importance of sustained dialogue" and Araghchi acknowledging Pakistan's "consistent and constructive facilitation role." A separate call between Araghchi and Pakistan's Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir was reported by Iranian state agency IRNA, though Pakistani authorities neither confirmed nor denied the conversation. President Trump announced that he was dispatching special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad to participate in talks with the Iranian Foreign Minister "this weekend." The configuration was notably different from the first round: Vice President JD Vance was not travelling to Pakistan, as Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf — who had led Tehran's first-round delegation — was also not attending. The lower delegation level was read by analysts as a sign that both sides were testing the diplomatic temperature before committing to a full summit-level engagement. Iran's precondition remained unchanged: the US naval blockade imposed on April 13 must be lifted before Tehran would engage in substantive nuclear or ceasefire negotiations. Ghalibaf had declared before Araghchi's departure that Iran "will not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats." Trump rejected any linkage between the blockade and talks, insisting both could proceed simultaneously, and maintained that the blockade was costing Iran approximately $500 million per day. A US logistics and security team had already arrived in Islamabad before Araghchi's flight, suggesting the White House was committed to the talks despite the precondition standoff. Araghchi's itinerary after Pakistan included planned stops in Moscow and Muscat — a diplomatic circuit suggesting Tehran was hedging across multiple power blocs simultaneously, seeking Russian and Omani backing to strengthen its hand against US pressure. Markets responded immediately to the news of Araghchi's arrival. Oil prices fell on reports that Iran's top diplomat was heading to Pakistan for negotiations, with Brent crude slipping from its earlier highs above $107 per barrel. The movement illustrated the acute sensitivity of global energy markets to any signal of diplomatic progress — or its absence — in the Hormuz standoff. The backdrop to Araghchi's arrival was the ongoing Strait of Hormuz mine crisis. Trump had ordered the US Navy to "shoot and kill" any Iranian boat laying mines just 24 hours earlier — an order the IRGC had called an "overt breach of the ceasefire." The juxtaposition of a lethal-force directive and a diplomatic resumption within the same 48-hour window defined the paradoxical logic of the 2026 Iran war: maximum pressure and maximum diplomacy, simultaneously, with neither side willing to blink first. The question Pakistani mediators posed privately — whether the Araghchi visit would produce a second round of substantive talks, or merely confirm that the precondition gap was unbridgeable — remained unanswered as Friday turned to Saturday in Islamabad.