Vance leaves for Pakistan for talks with Tehran

US Vice President JD Vance is visiting Pakistan to lead high-level talks with Iran as the fragile ceasefire is in danger of breaking down.

President Donald Trump tasked Vance, a longtime skeptic of foreign interference, with finding a solution to the six-week war.

Vance is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad along with envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, who previously engaged in indirect talks with Iranian officials on nuclear and regional security concerns.

The White House has offered few details about whether the talks with Pakistan will be direct or indirect. The meeting marks one of the highest levels of US engagement with Iran in decades, which has limited direct contact since Barack Obama spoke by phone with Hassan Rouhani in 2013.

Negotiators face major obstacles, with disagreements emerging soon after the ceasefire is announced. Iran has said that truth should include an end to Israeli operations in Lebanon, while Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump have rejected that interpretation.

The French AFP news agency quoted an unnamed US State Department official as saying that Israel and Lebanon will hold talks in Washington next week.

“We can confirm that the Department will host a meeting next week to discuss the ongoing ceasefire talks with Israel and Lebanon,” the US official said.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had instructed his Cabinet to hold direct talks with Lebanon, emphasizing the disarmament of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group.

AFP quoted an unnamed Lebanese government official as saying that Beirut needed a ceasefire before any negotiations with Israel.

Kuwait on Thursday evening accused Tehran of being targeted by drone strikes despite a ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel.

A statement from Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, carried by the state-owned KUNA news agency, said the attacks “targeted some important Kuwaiti facilities.” It reportedly caused significant material damage but no one was injured.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has denied any attack on Gulf countries during the ceasefire. In a statement on state media, the Guard said that if it carried out an attack, it would announce it publicly in an official statement.

Kuwait was among the Gulf countries regularly targeted by Iran throughout the war in retaliation for American and Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic.

Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon and announced strikes early Friday on targets it said belonged to the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

The Israeli military said it hit about 10 launch sites that were used to fire shells at northern Israel.

Meanwhile, air raid sirens were activated in Israel amid media reports of rocket fire from Lebanon overnight. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets toward Israel in response to what it described as ceasefire violations.

As soon as the ceasefire took effect on Wednesday, Israel stepped up its attacks on Lebanon, killing more than 300 people in a single day. Israel and the US deny that Lebanon is involved in the ceasefire, which is strongly denied by Iran and mediator Pakistan.

Many US allies condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanon, concerned that they could derail an already fragile ceasefire.

Despite numerous violations and a growing rift over whether Lebanon was included in the truth, a shaky two-week ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel has held for the most part.

Here are the main headlines on the ceasefire from Thursday:

• Israel bombs Beirut and southern Lebanon, killing more than 300

• This bombing took place despite the ceasefire agreed between America and Iran on Wednesday.

• Iran says talks with US ‘meaningless’ if Israel continues attacks on Lebanon

• The United Nations and several US allies warn that Israeli attacks on Lebanon threaten the ceasefire with Iran

• Pakistan, France, Russia, Britain and other countries have called for Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire agreement

• Germany has said it will restart talks with Iran, while Spain is set to reopen its Tehran embassy

• Israel’s Netanyahu said he has asked his Cabinet to start talks with Lebanon ‘as soon as possible’.

• Trump warns Iran not to impose toll on Strait of Hormuz

You can follow our live blog for all the big headlines on the war and ceasefire from Thursday.

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