Six weeks after open conflict erupted between the United States and Iran, the two long-adversarial nations convened their highest-level face-to-face negotiations in half a century Saturday in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, marking the first direct formal high-level meeting between the two sides since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The two-hour closed-door session brought together a high-powered American delegation led by Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, while Iran was represented by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Pakistan’s army chief also joined the opening round of talks, as the South Asian nation served as a neutral mediator for the breakthrough diplomatic engagement. The talks entered a pause after the initial session, even as competing and contradictory accounts of early progress and on-ground developments began to emerge even before negotiators released any official joint statement. One key point of contention is the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically critical waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s daily oil supplies. Iran’s blockade of the strait earlier sparked the largest single disruption to global energy markets in modern history. A senior anonymous U.S. official told news outlet Axios that multiple U.S. Navy vessels traversed the strait on Saturday, but both Iranian state television and an anonymous Pakistani source outright denied any U.S. ships had passed through the waterway. Shortly after the opening of talks, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on social media that the process of clearing the Strait of Hormuz had already begun, adding that all 28 of Iran’s mine-laying vessels had been sunk. No independent confirmation of this claim has emerged as of Saturday evening. Another conflicting report centers on the fate of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen by U.S. sanctions in foreign banks, primarily in Qatar. A senior unnamed Iranian source earlier told Reuters that the U.S. had agreed to release these assets, a statement that was immediately rejected by a U.S. official. The direct Saturday meeting came after hours of pre-negotiation shuttle diplomacy led by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who worked to align both sides on basic terms before the first face-to-face encounter. Iranian state media outlined Tehran’s core pre-negotiation red lines that Washington must accept for any final agreement: progress on the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the full unfreezing of Iranian blocked assets, war reparation payments from the U.S., and a comprehensive immediate ceasefire across the entire Middle East region. A key non-U.S.-Iran conflict at the top of Tehran’s negotiating agenda is the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Lebanon, where strikes have continued despite the recent bilateral ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. On Wednesday alone, Israeli strikes killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, and total fatalities from Israeli operations that began in March have reached nearly 2,000. Both the U.S. and Israel have insisted that the military campaign in Lebanon falls outside the scope of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, a position Tehran strongly rejects. Iran’s negotiating delegation has confirmed it will continue to press for an immediate ceasefire to end Israeli strikes in Lebanon during the ongoing talks. Even as the Islamabad talks got underway Saturday, fresh violence rocked southern Lebanon: Israeli air strikes hit more than a dozen locations, killing 10 people including a Lebanese civil defense member and two paramedics. In response, the Iran-aligned group Hezbollah announced it had carried out multiple targeted operations against Israeli military positions both inside Lebanese border territories and across the frontier in northern Israel. Looking ahead, both Israeli and Lebanese officials have confirmed they will hold separate talks in Washington on Tuesday, though the two sides have also released conflicting accounts of what agenda those discussions will cover, adding another layer of uncertainty to the already volatile regional situation as world powers wait for outcomes from the historic U.S.-Iran negotiations in Pakistan.
分类： world
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US-Iran talks begin in Pakistan’s Islamabad
Diplomatic efforts to defuse long-running tensions between the United States and Iran have moved into a new phase, with direct talks aimed at ending ongoing hostilities officially kicking off in Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad this Saturday, multiple regional and international media outlets have confirmed.
The meeting, hosted by Pakistan, marks a rare high-level diplomatic engagement between the two nations that have been locked in a decades-long adversarial standoff. For years, open hostilities and broken diplomatic channels have contributed to widespread instability across the Middle East and broader South Asian region, raising global concerns about escalated conflict. The decision to launch negotiations in Islamabad reflects Pakistan’s ongoing role as a neutral diplomatic intermediary between Tehran and Washington, leveraging its long-standing bilateral relationships with both governments to create space for dialogue.
While details of the negotiation agenda and initial discussions have not been released to the public at this early stage, the launch of direct talks itself marks a significant shift from the open confrontation that has defined US-Iran relations for much of the past decade. International observers have broadly framed the talks as a critical opportunity to de-escalate tensions that have already spilled over into regional conflicts in recent years, with stakeholders across the globe closely watching for developments out of the Islamabad negotiations.
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Pakistani PM meets US JD Vance: statement
ISLAMABAD, April 11, 2026 – A high-stakes diplomatic push to de-escalate soaring tensions in the Middle East moved through Pakistan’s capital on Saturday, as US Vice President JD Vance held a formal meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to an official statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Vance touched down in Islamabad Saturday to participate in newly arranged talks with an Iranian delegation, a diplomatic initiative aimed at ending the recent wave of armed hostilities that have roiled the broader Middle East region. The gathering marks a significant step in international efforts to open a diplomatic pathway out of escalating conflict, with Pakistan stepping in to host the critical negotiations.
During his meeting with Vance, Prime Minister Sharif praised both negotiating teams for their willingness to enter dialogue in good faith, and offered a forward-looking message on the potential of these talks to deliver long-term stability. He emphasized that the discussions represent a critical opening to build momentum toward lasting, durable peace across the Middle East.
Sharif made clear Pakistan’s continued commitment to the diplomatic process, reiterating that the country stands ready to keep supporting both the US and Iranian delegations as they work toward tangible progress on sustainable regional peace. Just hours before his meeting with Vance, the Pakistani prime minister had already held separate talks with the Iranian delegation, which arrived in Islamabad earlier the same day to prepare for the negotiations.
The talks in Islamabad come as the international community has grown increasingly alarmed by recent hostilities in the Middle East, pushing regional and global powers to pursue urgent diplomatic intervention to prevent further escalation. Pakistan’s role as host and facilitator underscores its position as a key stakeholder in regional stability and a neutral party willing to bridge divides between negotiating sides.
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In fiery speech, Pope Leo says ‘Enough to war!’
In one of the most forceful addresses of his early papacy, Pope Leo used a global peace prayer vigil at Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday to issue a searing condemnation of warmongering and an urgent call for global unity around dialogue. The 70-year-old American pontiff, elected to the papacy last May following the passing of Pope Francis, has emerged as a prominent voice against the rising tide of armed conflict across the globe, most recently doubling down on his criticism just one day prior, when he decried the “senseless and inhuman violence” roiling the Holy Land.
Speaking to gathered worshippers and a global audience of more than 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Leo did not name specific politicians or nation states, a consistent practice in his public remarks, but his words landed as a sharp rebuke to global leaders pursuing military escalation. In characteristically measured but impassioned tones, he laid bare the human cost of unending conflict, painting a stark portrait of a world “where there never seem to be enough graves, for people continue to crucify one another and eliminate life, with no regard to justice and mercy.”
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life,” the pontiff implored. Directing his message first to global heads of state, he urged an immediate end to hostilities and a return to diplomatic negotiation: “To them we cry out: Stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided!”
Beyond national leaders, Pope Leo extended responsibility for building peace to ordinary people across the world, calling on the “immense multitude” that rejects war to cultivate a culture of peace in everyday spaces: homes, schools, neighborhoods, and both civil and religious communities. He framed this grassroots work as a counter to what he called the “delusion of omnipotence” that has grown increasingly aggressive and unpredictable across the global stage.
“A Kingdom that counters polemics and resignation through friendship and a culture of encounter. Let us believe once again in love, moderation and good politics,” he said, describing the Kingdom of God as a bulwark against the dehumanizing forces of war: “It also is a place with ‘no sword, no drone, no vengeance, no trivialisation of evil, no unjust profit, but only dignity, understanding and forgiveness.’”
Known as a moderate bridge-builder since his election, Pope Leo has repeatedly pushed for de-escalation in ongoing conflicts, most notably the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, where he has consistently emphasized that a diplomatic solution is the only sustainable path forward. Saturday’s vigil marked one of his most passionate public entreaties to date, as he called on billions of people worldwide to reclaim shared values of compassion and cooperation in what he described as a “dramatic hour in history.”
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Easter truce between Russia and Ukraine begins
A 32-hour temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine officially entered force on Saturday, marking a rare pause in a four-year conflict that has reshaped European security. The truce, timed to coincide with Orthodox Easter, was first proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky more than a week before Russian President Vladimir Putin formally ordered the ceasefire, with both sides confirming their commitment to upholding the terms. According to Kremlin details, the pause in hostilities runs from 1300 GMT Saturday through the end of Sunday, covering more than a full day of religious observance for Orthodox communities on both sides.
Zelensky reaffirmed Ukraine’s commitment to the ceasefire in a post on social platform X, stating that Kyiv would match Russian compliance in kind. “The absence of Russian strikes in the air, on land, and at sea will mean no response from our side,” he wrote. Even as it pledged to adhere to the truce, the Ukrainian military warned it would launch an “immediate” retaliation if Moscow violated the agreement. Just hours before the truce was scheduled to begin, the war saw a sharp escalation in strikes: Ukrainian authorities reported that Russia launched at least 160 drones across the country, killing four civilians and wounding dozens more in Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions. The southern Odesa region suffered the worst damage, with two civilian deaths and significant destruction to critical civilian infrastructure.
Cross-border attacks were also reported on Russian territory overnight. Russian local authorities stated that a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes sparked a large fire at an oil depot in the southern Krasnodar region and damaged multiple residential apartment buildings. In Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and southern Kherson regions, Moscow-installed officials claimed four people were killed in the Ukrainian strikes.
The temporary ceasefire has been met with widespread skepticism from Ukrainians, who point to a similar Orthodox Easter truce held in 2024 that collapsed within hours, with both sides accusing the other of hundreds of violations. Despite the deep distrust surrounding the ceasefire, the warring parties completed a significant prisoner of war exchange on Saturday, with each side releasing 175 captured service members. The Russian defense ministry confirmed that the United Arab Emirates mediated the swap, one of the few consistent areas of limited cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv throughout the four-year conflict.
Efforts to reach a lasting negotiated end to the war have stalled in recent weeks, with US-led peace talks sidelined by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Even before the escalation in tensions in the Middle East, progress toward a peace deal moved at a glacial pace, driven by intractable disagreements over territorial claims. Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along existing front lines, but Russia has rejected the offer, demanding that Kyiv cede full control of all remaining Donetsk region territory it currently holds – a non-negotiable demand for Ukrainian leadership. Multiple rounds of US-mediated talks have failed to bridge the gap between the two sides.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Moscow had held pre-truce discussions with either Ukraine or the United States, and emphasized that the temporary ceasefire is not linked to any broader ongoing negotiations to end the war. Since the conflict began, it has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes, making it the deadliest conflict on European soil since World War II. After four years of fighting, frontline operations have largely stagnated, with Russia making incremental territorial gains at the cost of massive personnel and equipment losses.
According to recent assessments from the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian advances have slowed significantly since late 2025, after Ukrainian counteroffensives pushed back Russian forces in the southeast. Analysts attribute the slowdown in Russian operations to multiple factors, including Moscow’s ban on the use of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet for frontline Russian forces and Russia’s own restrictions on the Telegram messaging app. Despite these setbacks for Russia, the ISW assessment notes that the situation remains unfavorable for Ukrainian forces in parts of the Donetsk region near the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Currently, Moscow occupies just over 19 percent of Ukraine’s total territory, most of which was seized in the opening weeks of the 2022 invasion.
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Pakistan reiterates support for constructive US-Iran engagement
ISLAMABAD, April 11, 2026 — As delegations from the United States and Iran prepare to sit down for negotiations aimed at de-escalating recent Middle Eastern hostilities, Pakistan has publicly reaffirmed its full commitment to supporting constructive diplomatic engagement between the two rival nations.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar released an official statement through the country’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday, outlining the nation’s long-standing position on the escalating tensions. Dar emphasized that Islamabad remains convinced that dialogue and collaborative negotiation are the only sustainable paths to resolving deep-rooted international disputes. He expressed clear hope that all stakeholders involved in the ongoing conflict will approach the upcoming discussions in good faith, prioritizing constructive engagement to move the region closer to a permanent, peaceful resolution.
Dar further reiterated Pakistan’s consistent willingness to continue acting as a neutral facilitator for the talks, standing ready to support both sides as they work toward a lasting and durable agreement that addresses core concerns on all fronts.
The statement from Pakistan’s top diplomat came hours after a US diplomatic delegation touched down in Islamabad on Saturday. Iran’s negotiation team had already arrived in the Pakistani capital earlier in the week, setting the stage for the face-to-face talks that many regional observers see as a critical turning point for easing escalating violence across the Middle East. The negotiations, hosted on Pakistani soil, mark a high-stakes diplomatic push to end the recent wave of hostilities that have raised widespread global concern over regional stability.
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Nearly 400 sentenced in Nigeria for links to militant Islamists
More than a decade of brutal Islamist insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has pushed the country’s government to take landmark judicial action, convicting nearly 400 suspects on charges tied to banned extremist organizations in mass trials that wrapped up in Abuja this week.
Of the 505 suspects arraigned at the Federal High Court in Nigeria’s capital, 386 were found guilty of ties to either Boko Haram or its splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), officials confirmed Friday. Sentences for the convicts run from a five-year prison term to life behind bars, reflecting the varying severity of the charges ranging from direct participation in militant attacks to facilitating extremist activities through funding, weapons smuggling, logistical support, or sharing intelligence. Two defendants were acquitted, eight were released without conviction, and proceedings for 112 additional suspects were adjourned to a later date. Early in the judicial process, five defendants entered guilty pleas, admitting they had supplied food, livestock and insider information to the militant networks.
The mass convictions come as Nigeria’s federal government faces mounting public and international pressure to rein in a sprawling security crisis that has destabilized large swathes of the country. Africa’s most populous nation is currently confronting overlapping threats from multiple armed factions: alongside the long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, security forces are also battling separatist movements in the southeast and rampant kidnapping-for-ransom gangs that operate across many northern and central states.
The Boko Haram insurgency, which first erupted in 2009, has left a devastating humanitarian toll in its wake. Aid organizations estimate the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 2 million residents to flee their homes, creating one of the world’s largest displaced populations.
The deteriorating security landscape has prompted international warnings in recent days. On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory, urging American citizens to reconsider all trips to Nigeria due to heightened risks of violence, crime and kidnapping. This is not the first time Washington has taken direct action in response to militant activity in the region: on Christmas Day during the Trump administration, U.S. forces carried out an airstrike in northern Sokoto State targeting the lesser-known militant group Lakurawa. The strike followed then-President Trump’s public claim that Christians were being specifically targeted for persecution in Nigeria—a claim Nigerian officials rejected at the time, noting that people of all religious faiths, and those with no religious affiliation, have fallen victim to the country’s ongoing violence.
As security conditions continue to fluctuate across the Sahel region, Nigeria’s judicial crackdown on militant suspects marks a major step by the government to demonstrate progress in its fight against extremism, even as insurgent attacks and intercommunal violence remain persistent threats across much of the north.
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US Vice-President Vance arrives in Pakistan
On Saturday, April 11, 2026, United States Vice President JD Vance touched down in Islamabad, Pakistan, touching off a highly anticipated round of diplomatic negotiations between US and Iranian officials on Pakistani soil. Vance arrived via Air Force Two, with official photos documenting his arrival at the Islamabad airport ahead of the scheduled talks.
The meeting, hosted by Pakistan, marks a rare high-level engagement between Washington and Tehran at a time of heightened regional tension and stalled diplomatic progress between the two nations. Pakistan’s role as a neutral host underscores its ongoing engagement as a diplomatic bridge in South Asian and Middle Eastern geopolitics, bringing the two long-adversarial parties to the negotiating table in a third-party location that both sides have accepted.
Global observers have framed the upcoming discussions as a pivotal moment for regional security, with a wide range of contentious issues expected to be on the agenda, from regional nuclear non-proliferation to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. The outcome of these talks carries potential implications for global energy markets, regional stability, and the future of US-Iran relations, making Vance’s arrival in Islamabad a closely watched development for governments and analysts across the world. The visit was first reported and updated by Xinhua News Agency on the same day of Vance’s landing.
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US delegates for talks with Iran land in Pakistan
Diplomatic momentum has shifted to Islamabad this weekend, as rival delegations from the United States and Iran have both touched down in Pakistan’s capital for long-awaited negotiations aimed at de-escalating ongoing hostilities across the Middle East.
On Saturday morning, a US delegation led by Vice-President JD Vance arrived in the city, according to regional diplomatic sources. Two other high-profile members of the American team — Donald Trump’s special representative Steve Witkoff and senior advisor Jared Kushner — traveled separately on a dedicated aircraft that landed at Islamabad’s Nur Khan Airbase alongside the main delegation.
The Iranian diplomatic contingent, headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, completed its own arrival in the Pakistani capital earlier the same day, positioning both sides to launch the scheduled discussions later on Saturday.
The talks come at a critical moment for regional security, with the ultimate goal of bringing an end to active hostilities that have roiled the Middle East in recent months. But despite the willingness of both sides to come to the negotiating table in a neutral third country, deep-seated decades-long mistrust between the two longstanding adversaries hangs over the discussions, creating major uncertainty about the prospects for meaningful breakthroughs. Pakistan, acting as the host for this unexpected diplomatic summit, has provided a neutral venue for the two powers to engage in direct talks amid heightened international pressure to reduce regional tensions.
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Experts warn of ‘hasbara’ and disinformation in digital battle over Palestine
On April 7, a virtual gathering organized by the Global Alliance for Palestine brought together researchers, grassroots activists and digital rights specialists to sound the alarm about coordinated state-backed propaganda and disinformation operations that are actively skewing global public narratives about Palestine. Titled “Countering Israel’s 2026 Hasbara Industry”, the webinar centered its discussion on what panelists characterized as structured, well-resourced digital messaging campaigns run by the Israeli government.
Hasbara, Israel’s official national public diplomacy directorate, is the body that oversees the country’s widespread propaganda operations. In a sign of internal friction around these efforts, the directorate has already faced legal action from private companies and contractors that provided services for the campaigns in the early months of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. To amplify its messaging following the outbreak of large-scale conflict in Gaza, Israel launched a covert initiative codenamed the “Esther Project”, which relies on secret public relations campaigns and contracted corporate firms to manage a sprawling network of paid social media influencers.
Since the October 2023 escalation of hostilities, Israel’s propaganda push has expanded beyond Hasbara, with the country’s foreign ministry and diaspora ministry also committing massive budgets to distributing Israeli-aligned content. The core goal of these efforts, panelists confirmed, is to shift global public opinion, push back against and deny widespread allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide perpetrated by Israeli forces in Gaza.
During the webinar, panelists emphasized that modern Israeli disinformation operations increasingly leverage cutting-edge digital tools, micro-targeted advertising, and artificial intelligence to shape public perception. Anas Ambri, a researcher with The New Arab Investigative Unit, presented new findings on Israel’s online ad campaigns and industry transparency requirements, noting that promotions tied to the Israeli government rarely disclose their official affiliations. He detailed how untargeted disclosures and hidden funding for targeted ad campaigns can reshape public narratives across major social media and digital platforms.
Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a policy analyst with the Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, outlined the critical role open-source intelligence plays in documenting on-the-ground events in Gaza and pushing back against false Israeli messaging. He explained that open-source verification methods have been instrumental in confirming the details of violent incidents, challenging unsubstantiated Israeli claims, uncovering mass grave sites in Gaza, and exposing disinformation campaigns on social media platforms.
Hala Hanina, a Gaza-born political activist and doctoral researcher based in the United Kingdom, analyzed long-standing patterns of media coverage throughout the current conflict. She argued that a core pillar of Israeli state disinformation involves outright denial of attacks on civilian infrastructure and populations, shifting blame to Palestinian groups for Israeli violence, and framing narratives that deliberately downplay or obscure the devastating impact of military operations on Palestinian civilians. Her presentation detailed how these manipulated messages spread across both traditional legacy media and digital platforms, derailing calls for accountability and confusing audiences seeking accurate information about the conflict.
Another panelist, identified only as Lujane, focused her remarks on the intersection of artificial intelligence and digital influence, explaining how curated content ecosystems can skew AI-generated outputs to amplify and entrench pro-Israeli narratives. She noted that hidden funding networks and targeted amplification strategies are key to ensuring these skewed narratives reach broad global audiences.
Noted digital rights advocate Nadim Nashif raised urgent concerns about unequal platform governance, pointing to repeated past incidents where content from Palestinian creators and journalists was removed or algorithmically restricted. He argued that current algorithmic moderation frameworks and major platform policies systematically create unequal visibility for Palestinian and Israeli perspectives, amplifying pro-Israeli content while suppressing Palestinian voices.
Not all discussion focused solely on the challenge of disinformation, however. Miriyam Aouragh, a professor at the University of Westminster, noted that the open digital ecosystem has also created new space for counter-narratives, allowing Palestinian voices to reach wider global audiences than ever before. She pointed to growing public dissent among technology workers at major platforms, as well as increased public scrutiny of platform content moderation practices, as positive shifts that have helped level the information playing field.
Webinar organizers emphasized that the event’s core goal was to provide attendees with the analytical tools needed to trace how information is produced, circulated, and manipulated during armed conflict. They stressed that addressing systemic disinformation and expanding global media literacy will remain critical priorities, as digital platforms continue to be the primary venue where global public perceptions of the Palestine-Israel conflict are formed.
This reporting builds on independent, on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East and North Africa from Middle East Eye, a publication focused on unaffiliated, in-depth analysis of the region.