An Iranian delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday for a fresh round of talks with the United States, Iranian sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN, opening a third diplomatic track after high-level discussions failed to reach agreement last weekend.
The team is expected to mirror the one sent to the previous round, led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and accompanied by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. There has been no official confirmation from Tehran that the negotiators will travel, after President Donald Trump announced he was dispatching a US delegation.
The Iranian sources said they expect a symbolic joint announcement extending the ceasefire on Wednesday. If the talks progress and Trump agrees to travel to Islamabad himself, the Iranian president would also attend a “joint meeting of presidents” at which the two leaders would sign an “Islamabad declaration.”
The floated presidential-level summit would mark the highest-level direct engagement between Washington and Tehran since the current crisis began and would lock in a framework beyond the current fragile ceasefire window.
Stakes for Sri Lanka
The diplomatic track matters directly for Sri Lanka’s fuel supply. Any extension of the ceasefire eases the pressure on Hormuz shipping lanes that feed Colombo’s petroleum imports, while a full declaration could stabilise Brent crude prices that have fluctuated violently through the conflict. The previous weekend’s collapsed talks in Islamabad were followed by renewed Hormuz tensions and fresh warnings from Tehran.
Pakistan is again serving as host and broker. The country deployed 20,000 security personnel to Islamabad for the second round of talks and has positioned itself as the principal intermediary between the two sides.
Unresolved nuclear question
The nuclear enrichment issue that broke the last round remains unaddressed in the initial framing of the Tuesday meeting. Vice President J.D. Vance said after the weekend collapse that the two sides were still “far apart” on the key sticking point of Iranian uranium enrichment, even as the ceasefire held.
