By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers
The Strait of Hormuz is allegedly being
cleared.
US and Iranian
negotiators held their highest-level talks in half a century in Pakistan on
April 11 to try to end their six-week war as President Donald Trump said his
military was starting the process of clearing the Strait
of Hormuz.
The talks in
Islamabad were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and
the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
The Strait of Hormuz,
a major transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively
blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen, is crucial to negotiations between the
sides during a two-week ceasefire agreed last week.
Iran’s semi-official
Tasnim news agency said the waterway remains among the main points of “serious
disagreement” in talks between Iranian and US delegations in Islamabad.
The US military said
two of its warships had passed through the strait, and conditions were being
set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any US ships had transited
the waterway.
"We're now
starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to
Countries all over the World," Trump posted on social media.
Iran's parliamentary
speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (left) and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif during their meeting prior to the US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad on
Apr 11, 2026.
US Vice President JD Vance,
special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's 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 arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for former Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes
and bags of some students killed during the U.S. 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," another Pakistani source said in reference to the first round of
talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict.
Iran's
state-affiliated Nournews said talks would resume
later on Saturday night or Sunday.
Pope Leo, in an
impassioned appeal on Saturday, urged world leaders to end what he called the
"madness of war."
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