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Iran delegation meets Pakistan PM ahead of negotiations with US
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An Iranian government delegation met Pakistan’s prime minister on Saturday to discuss the terms of planned “make or break” negotiations to end the Middle East war with a US party led by Vice President JD Vance.
With the first talks underway at Islamabad’s Serena Hotel, Iranian media reported that the Iranian side would decide at the end of the meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif whether to go ahead with negotiations with the Americans.
Iran has previously said that any agreement on a permanent end to fighting must include the unfreezing of sanctioned Iranian assets and include an end to Israel’s war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which Vance has said will not be up for discussion in Islamabad.
But both parties had arrived at the talks venue when the Iranian delegation led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf met Sharif, having arrived overnight at an air base near the capital and disembarked to embrace Pakistan’s powerful army chief Asim Munir.
Munir, who shares a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump, also greeted Vance, escorting him down a red carpet at the Nur Khan air base, where US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were waiting.
The warring parties still appeared to be far apart on key issues — including sanctions, Lebanon and the opening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz — and made no attempt to hide their mutual suspicion.
“Our experience in negotiating with the Americans has always been met with failure and broken promises,” Ghalibaf said shortly after landing, according to Iran’s state broadcaster.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is also part of the delegation, told his German counterpart in a call on Saturday that “Iran enters negotiations with complete distrust due to repeated breaches of commitments and betrayals by the United States”, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Vance said before leaving the US that if the other side was “willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand”.
– ‘Make or break’ –
But “if they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive”, he added.
The ceasefire is already under strain, notably from Israel’s continued strikes in Lebanon, which Iran and Pakistan insist is covered under the current truce.
Prime Minister Sharif, whose country’s down-to-the-wire mediation got both sides to the negotiating table this week, said talks would not be easy.
“An even more difficult stage lies ahead,” he said, referring to efforts to permanently end fighting that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, sparking Iranian retaliation against Israel and across the Gulf.
“This is that stage which, in English, is called the equivalent of ‘make or break.’”
– Islamabad plays host –
Iran — which brought a more than 70-member delegation to Pakistan — has insisted on the truce covering Lebanon and on the unfreezing of its assets for the Islamabad talks to go ahead, neither of which has materialised so far.
On the US side, Trump demanded the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as a condition for the two-week ceasefire.
The strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s crude passes, has not reopened to normal traffic, however, and Trump vowed on Friday to have it open soon “with or without” Iran’s cooperation.
He added that his top priority at the Islamabad talks was to ensure the Islamic republic had “no nuclear weapon. That’s 99 percent of it.”
Security was tight in the Pakistani capital on Saturday, with a heavy police and paramilitary presence on the streets and road diversions around the “red zone” where government and diplomatic buildings are located.
Pakistan has formulated a team of subject matter specialists to facilitate the two sides in negotiations on navigation, nuclear and other key matters, a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told AFP.
The negotiations will be closely watched by other key regional players, with Egypt and Turkey having helped with mediation, along with China, all of which Pakistan was still coordinating closely with for the talks, the source said.
Beijing has been sought as a possible guarantor of any lasting agreement, official sources have said, with Trump confirming to AFP that China helped get Tehran to the negotiating table.
– Violence in Lebanon –
Complicating the path to a permanent ceasefire was Israel’s assertion that the current truce does not cover Lebanon.
Israeli air strikes continued in Lebanon on Friday against Iran-backed Hezbollah despite the Iranian demand that they be halted.
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said his country would hold discussions with Lebanon’s government in Washington next week but would not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The militant group said overnight that it had carried out drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, as well as on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
In Tehran, a 30-year-old resident told AFP he was sceptical negotiations would be successful, describing most of what Trump says as “pure noise and nonsense.”
AFP
An Ecuadorian court has sentenced former President Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes linked to the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric dam.
Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, was among 20 people convicted over corruption allegations surrounding the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, which was built by Chinese company Sinohydro.
Prosecutors alleged that Sinohydro paid about $76 million in bribes, representing roughly four per cent of the project’s total cost.
Moreno, 73, denied the allegations and maintained that he never received money from the Chinese company.
Speaking after Friday’s ruling, the former president said he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.
He also blamed the case on the administration of his former political ally and predecessor, Rafael Correa, whom he accused of seeking revenge after their political relationship deteriorated.
Moreno served as Correa’s vice-president between 2007 and 2013 before succeeding him as president. The two later fell out after Moreno moved away from Correa’s socialist policies and developed closer ties with the United States.
The court also sentenced Moreno’s wife and other relatives to nearly three years in prison for complicity in the corruption case.
Two former managers of the Coca Codo Sinclair power plant were also among those convicted.
Prosecutors had initially requested a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Moreno.
The former president has announced plans to appeal the judgment.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for official US federal use, in the latest escalation of his dispute with Canada.
Trump signed the order on Thursday at the White House, saying the change was effective immediately. The order directs the US Department of the Interior to update federal geographic records and naming systems.
Trump justified the move by accusing Canada of treating the United States unfairly in trade and defence. He said Canada had been “ripping us off” in trade and criticised Ottawa over its relationship with Washington.
However, the order does not require Canada or international organisations to adopt the new name. Lake Ontario is shared by the US state of New York and Canada’s province of Ontario, with more than half of its surface area lying in Canadian territory.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford dismissed the move, saying the lake would continue to be known as Lake Ontario by Canadians and much of the rest of the world.
The renaming comes amid a rapidly worsening US-Canada trade dispute. Washington recently imposed 50 per cent tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own on hundreds of US products.
The latest move echoes Trump’s decision in January 2025 to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” for US federal purposes.
Trump also suggested that further geographic name changes could be considered, joking that after a gulf and a lake, the United States might eventually rename the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government had not immediately issued a formal response to the latest order.
The controversy has added another symbolic dimension to already strained relations between the two neighbouring countries, as both sides continue to impose tariffs and seek to protect their economies.
The United States Secret Service has confirmed that it is aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state media that appears to threaten the life of Barron Trump, the youngest son of US President Donald Trump.
The nearly three-minute video, aired by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), opens with an English-language graphic asking: “Where to kill Barron Trump?!” It then displays stylised graphics identifying places where Barron is publicly known to spend time, including Trump Tower in New York.
The video ends with a narrator referring to people being “eagerly waiting to receive our $10 million reward.”
Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring confirmed that the agency was investigating the video as a potential threat against one of its protectees.
“The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring told CNN in a statement. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”
The apparent targeting of Barron marks a new development in a broader pattern of threats directed at Trump and members of his family by hard-line Iranian media.
Iranian media outlets have previously published material threatening President Trump and his family, while first lady Melania Trump has also been the subject of threats. However, the video appears to be the first public instance in which Barron has been specifically singled out.
A federal law enforcement source told CNN that the video forms part of a wider campaign of material from Iran targeting Trump and his family. According to the source, some of the videos have included details about movements and suggestions for killing members of the president’s family.
The security response to such threats involves continuously changing and adjusting protective arrangements, based on information gathered by the Secret Service, other US agencies, police authorities and foreign governments.
IRIB, which broadcast the video, is regarded as aligned with hard-liners within Iran’s regime, while its head is directly appointed by Iran’s supreme leader.
Trump has previously spoken publicly about threats against his life from Iran.
“I’m on whatever list… so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long. These are evil, sick people.”
He made the comments in July at the NATO summit in Turkey, before secretly leaving the country aboard an alternate military aircraft.
The departure was part of an elaborate security operation reportedly triggered by an Iranian threat. Trump boarded the aircraft while concealed inside a catering truck after officials determined that travelling on either version of Air Force One could expose him to an unacceptable level of danger.
A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the threat involved a shoulder-fired missile and was considered specific enough for officials to fear that Trump’s life would be at enormous risk if he travelled on either version of Air Force One.
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