Trump sends envoys to Islamabad as Iran rules out direct talks

ISLAMABAD (AP) — U.S. envoys are expected to travel to Pakistan on Saturday in a new bid to salvage ceasefire talks with Tehran, even as Iran ruled out direct negotiations with U.S. representatives as its top diplomat arrived in Islamabad.

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The latest effort to broker a deal comes as an indefinite ceasefire has paused most fighting, but economic fallout is still mounting with global energy shipments disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan works to get US and Iran back to the negotiating table

Pakistan has been trying to get U.S. and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honoring Islamabad’s request for more time for diplomatic outreach.

The White House said Friday that President Donald Trump would send Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to meet with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. But shortly after Araghchi arrived in Islamabad, his ministry said any talks would be indirect, with messages conveyed between the two sides by Pakistani officials.

Araghchi and the two Trump envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on Feb. 27 over Tehran’s nuclear program, but walked away without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started the war against Iran.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president had decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out.”

“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” Leavitt said. She did not offer any details about what U.S. officials were hearing.

Trump extends the Jones Act waiver for 90 days

Separately Friday, the White House said Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver, making it easier for non-American vessels to transport oil and natural gas.

He first announced a 60-day waiver in March in a move intended to stabilize energy prices and ease oil and gas shipments to the U.S. following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.

Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the U.S. is maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, retreated on the news, vacillating between $103 a barrel and more than $107 — still nearly 50% higher than where it was on Feb. 28, when the war began.