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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s president arrived in Pakistan for talks Tuesday with officials mediating negotiations between Tehran and Washington on a permanent end to the war in the Middle East, even as discrepancies emerged on what had been agreed so far and violence broke out again in Lebanon.
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams were working on details of the deal following high-level negotiations in Switzerland Monday led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
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In Tehran, Iran’s capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters that no visits were scheduled for the U.N. watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — to examine Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the United States last year. Vance previously said the negotiations in Switzerland won an agreement for the inspectors to visit the sites.
The IAEA has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war in 2025, but has not been granted access to the bombed enrichment sites targeted by the U.S. at the time.
Meanwhile, violence flared again in southern Lebanon as Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing two people. The reports of violence came after two days of calm following a ceasefire brokered on Saturday. Any renewal of heavy fighting could threaten the broader diplomatic talks, since Iran has demanded that a full truce in Lebanon be part of any comprehensive deal.
Iran’s president makes his first visit to Islamabad since the war started
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials received Pezeshkian upon his arrival in Islamabad amid tight security, according to Pakistani state media. Television footage showed Pezeshkian embracing Zardari and Sharif as they welcomed him.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also joined the delegation in Islamabad.
It’s the Iranian president’s first visit since the conflict started with the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran on Feb. 28.
Pezeshkian and Sharif were to hold a joint news conference after their discussions.
In the initial talks, marking the start of a 60-day diplomatic process that seeks to reach a permanent deal to end the Iran war, Iran and the U.S. agreed to create a “de-confliction cell” to address the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. The U.S. said negotiators also discussed “mechanisms” to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil transit that Iran had effectively blocked during the war, remains open.
Ahead of his meetings in Pakistan, Pezeshkian cautioned that “the effectiveness of the talks depends on full commitment to the agreed obligations and their precise implementation.”
“Progress on this path will be measured by practical adherence to accepted responsibilities,” he wrote on X. “Statements outside the agreed text do not help advance the negotiations.”
Iran says negotiation groups focused on sanctions relief, nuclear issues and more
Iran suggested that the ongoing talks in Switzerland have led to the creation of specific negotiation groups, including those focused on sanctions relief, nuclear issues, reconstruction, and monitoring, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The report quoted Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister leading the technical talks, saying the countries involved also formed a contact mechanism over ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz and over the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.
It remains unclear whether the deconfliction cell being created will be enough to stop fighting between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel, which occupies part of Lebanon and insists it must be able to attack militants launching attacks into northern Israel.
Israeli forces opened fire and killed two men in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa on Tuesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, saying the pair were next to a bulldozer clearing a road.
Separately, the agency said Israeli troops fired on residents near the town of Hadatha as they were heading to carry out a burial with a Lebanese army escort.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Discrepancy on Iran’s use of unfrozen funds
Following the high-level talks in Switzerland, Vance had said if Iranian financial assets were unfrozen, they would be used to buy American-grown food.
Vance said the U.S. and Qatar would have approval over the process, but if Iranian money becomes accessible as sanctions are lifted, it “would actually go to buy American soy, American corn and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.”
However, Iran has no current demand for U.S. crops and Baghaei said on Tuesday that Tehran’s decisions on what to import would be based on “prices and quality.”
“It is interesting that the philosophy and goal of the war, which was the destruction of the Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has become enriching American farmers,” Baghaei said in Tehran.
Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, also questioned Vance’s contention that the U.S. and Qatar would have to approve how Iran uses unfrozen funds.
“Iran is the only country who decides what to do with those assets,” he told reporters.
Netanyahu raises new questions over fragile Lebanon ceasefire
Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the cell would include the Lebanese government and would “ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon,” but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised new questions late on Monday, saying his military still has “full freedom of action to thwart any direct or emerging threat to them or to the residents of the north.”
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the U.S.-Iran deal, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep his forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing.
When asked about Netanyahu’s comments, U.S. President Donald Trump said “we’re going to take a look at it,” adding that the situation would “get solved.”
The main highway leading south from Beirut was jammed Tuesday with people displaced from southern Lebanon returning to their homes. Among them was Hawraa Nour El-Din, from the village of Khirbet Selm.
“We don’t want the negotiations done by the government,” she said. “We want Iran to negotiate on our behalf, and we are returning victorious, whether everyone likes it or not.”
No Israeli airstrikes or shelling have been reported since Sunday, a day after a ceasefire was reached, and Hezbollah also has not claimed any attacks in what has been the longest halt in the fighting since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.
Lebanon and Israel planned another round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday, which were expected to focus on developing a plan for an Israeli withdrawal.
