The fate of a Middle East ceasefire hung in the balance on Friday as Iranian and US negotiators prepared to meet in Pakistan for peace talks this weekend.
Disputes over Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz have pushed the fragile two-week truce to the brink, with both sides threatening to return to war if their demands are not met.
Iran sowed doubt about whether its negotiators would show up in Islamabad as it tries to pressure the US to end Israel's attacks on Hezbollah. US President Donald Trump has meanwhile accused Iran of reneging on its side of the bargain, with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz still at a standstill.
The talks, scheduled to start in Islamabad on Saturday, came after Pakistan brokered a two-week ceasefire following almost six weeks of war. Indirect talks in Islamabad Negotiations are planned to get underway at the Serena Hotel in the Pakistani capital over the weekend and last for two weeks.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif will host the talks and hold separate meetings with the teams on Friday and Saturday, before Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar leads the negotiations on Saturday.
The two sides are not expected to meet face-to-face, relying on Pakistani officials to pass messages between them.
The US delegation will be led by Vice President JD Vance, alongside Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Vance - a leading sceptic of the war in the White House - was reportedly the preferred negotiating partner of Iran, which has accused Witkoff and Kushner of "deception" during the previous two rounds of nuclear talks.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are expected to lead Iran's negotiating team, although their attendance has not been confirmed due to the ongoing tensions with Israel and the US.
Tehran has threatened to abandon the talks in response to Israel's continued bombardment of Lebanon, and Iranian media on Friday refuted reports that the negotiators had arrived in the Pakistani capital.
Iran's ambassador to Pakistan wrote on X that the delegation still planned to travel to Islamabad on 9 April but subsequently deleted the post. Issues on the table The two sides remain far apart on almost all issues heading into the talks.
Trump has continued to demand that Iran meet all of his pre-war conditions, including ending all nuclear enrichment, suspending its ballistic missile programme, and ending its support for its regional allies.
Iran has lodged maximalist demands of its own, and although Trump agreed to use its 10-point plan as a basis for negotiations, the proposal includes a raft of audacious ultimatums that are unlikely to be taken seriously by US negotiators.
Along with respecting its right to enrich uranium and lifting sanctions, it is also demanding a US military pullback from the region and pay compensation for its wartime losses.
The war has further complicated negotiations, with Iran now in control of the Strait of Hormuz and using it as leverage in the upcoming talks.
Iranian officials have insisted they should be able to regulate traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and exploit the strategic chokepoint - where around 20 percent of the world's oil passes through - as a source of revenue for reconstruction.
This has been met with outrage from countries, particularly in the Gulf, who have called on Tehran to allow the free flow of traffic, as international law dictates. Lebanon, Hormuz jeopardise ceasefire The ceasefire was undermined almost immediately on Wednesday when Israel carried out its most destructive round of bombing in Lebanon yet, while Iran launched new attacks across the Gulf, despite Tehran's denials.
Tehran threatened to end the truce after Israel killed more than 300 people in Lebanon, accusing the US of breaching the agreement by allowing Israel's attacks to continue.
Israel and the US have both denied that Lebanon was part of the ceasefire, contradicting Pakistan's prime minister, who announced it would apply across the region.
Reporting by US media has since revealed that Trump did agree to pause the fighting in Lebanon but subsequently reversed course after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, the US president on Thursday issued new threats to Iran over its control of the Strait of Hormuz, where it has continued to direct ships via a corridor controlled by the Revolutionary Guards and charge transit fees.
Traffic through the strait has remained little changed over the past two days, with only 12 ships passing through since the ceasefire, according to data platform Kpler.
Iran has threatened to fully close the waterway in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
"There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait – They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonourable some would say, of allowing oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement we have!" he wrote in a separate post. Fresh strikes reported in Gulf Kuwait's foreign ministry reported fresh strikes on Thursday, which killed one person and injured several others.
The ministry said drones "targeted some vital Kuwaiti facilities Thursday night", according to Kuwait's state-run news agency.
The rate of attacks across the region slowed significantly on Thursday following waves of strikes the day before, which Iran has denied it was responsible for.
A Saudi official yesterday confirmed that attacks in previous days had caused significant damage to its energy infrastructure.
An attack on the vital East-West pipeline earlier this week resulted in the loss of 700,000 barrels of oil per day, they said.