Iran has pushed back against media accounts suggesting an Iranian negotiating team had arrived in Pakistan's capital to engage in talks with United States representatives, according to local reporting on Friday.
State-affiliated Tasnim News Agency described the reports that an Iranian delegation had gone to Islamabad for negotiations as "completely false." The agency cited Tehran's position that formal discussions will remain on hold while Washington fails to implement commitments tied to a ceasefire in Lebanon and while Israeli strikes continue.
The clarification from Tehran arrives several days after Iran and the U.S. agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 7, an arrangement that followed mediation efforts led by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. That accord was broadly viewed as a diplomatic opening after weeks of conflict.
Pakistan said on April 8 that the truce would apply more widely, including to Lebanon, and Islamabad extended invitations to both parties to take part in subsequent negotiations that were scheduled for April 10. Still, ongoing hostilities - and in particular continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon - have prompted doubts about how long the ceasefire will hold.
Adding to mixed signals, Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, appeared to remove a post on X that had signaled a delegation would be arriving in Islamabad ahead of the planned weekend talks with U.S. officials.
Iran's formal denial and the deletion of the ambassador's post together underscore the fragile and unsettled state of the recent diplomatic progress, with official statements maintaining that talks remain contingent on actions related to the ceasefire and on the cessation of attacks cited in Tehran's response.
Clear summary
Iran has denied that a negotiating team traveled to Islamabad for talks with the United States, calling such reports "completely false." Tehran says talks will remain suspended until U.S. commitments connected to a Lebanon ceasefire are honored and Israeli attacks stop. The denial follows a two-week ceasefire agreed on April 7 after mediation by Pakistan's prime minister, and an April 8 Pakistani statement that the truce would apply broadly and that further negotiations were invited for April 10.