US President Donald Trump has reportedly decided to dispatch special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was set to arrive in Islamabad on Friday.
It is unclear when Witkoff and Kushner will actually depart for Islamabad or when the meeting with Araghchi will be held, but the Axios news site said Witkoff and Kushner will fly out in the coming days.
CNN, which first broke the story, said US Vice President JD Vance was not slated to join Witkoff and Kushner. Vance is seen as the head of the US negotiating team, with his counterpart being Iranian parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, who did not make the trip to Pakistan with Araghchi.
CNN said Vance would be on standby to travel to Islamabad if negotiations progress.
Araghchi was expected to arrive in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Friday to discuss proposals for restarting peace talks with the United States.
Islamabad was the venue for talks between the US and Iran earlier this month, and Pakistan sought to host another round this week that never came to fruition due to ongoing disputes between Washington and Tehran.
Araghchi said in a Friday statement on X that he was embarking on visits to Pakistan, Oman and Russia to coordinate with partners on bilateral matters and consult on regional developments, claiming that Iran’s neighbors remained Tehran’s priority, even though Tehran fired relentlessly on many of them during the war.
Two Pakistani government sources aware of the discussions said Araghchi’s visit would be a brief one to discuss Iran’s proposals for talks with the US, which mediator Pakistan would then convey to Washington.
There was no direct response from Washington to Araghchi’s trip, but US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking around the same time the news emerged, told a briefing that Iran had a chance to make a “good deal” with the United States.
“Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely … at the negotiating table. All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways,” he said.
Reports on Araghchi’s trip in Iranian state media and the Pakistani sources made no mention of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, who was the head of its delegation at the only talks held so far, earlier this month.
Pakistani sources had said earlier that a US logistics and security team was already in place in Islamabad for potential talks.
The last round of peace talks had been expected on Tuesday but never took place, with Iran saying it was not yet ready to commit to attending and a US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance never leaving Washington.
President Donald Trump unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday at the 11th hour to allow more time to reconvene the negotiators.
US said preparing new battle plans for Strait of Hormuz
In the meantime, the American military is developing new battle plans to target Iran’s capabilities in the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
According to CNN, the Pentagon is reviewing several attack plans, including an option to strike Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz, the southern Arabian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman.
Sources told the news outlet that the strikes would hit assets that have helped Iran maintain its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ fleet of fast attack boats and vessels used for laying mines.
Trump appeared to hint at these plans on Thursday, declaring that the US Navy would “shoot and kill” any boat mining the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC’s fast attack boats have reportedly survived the intense US and Israeli bombing campaigns that wiped out much of Iran’s traditional navy.
They typically carry mounted machine guns, and can be used for mining operations, though, the US has yet to confirm that Iranian ships have been mining the Strait of Hormuz.
Regardless, Hegseth on Friday warned that any attempts by Iran to lay mines in the strait would be deemed a violation of the ceasefire and that the US would strike such boats accordingly.
Another plan proposed by military officials is to target the Iranian military leaders believed by the US to be blocking negotiations for a permanent end to the war.
Trump claimed on Thursday that internal divisions in Iran were preventing it from submitting a response in ceasefire talks with the US.
“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know!” he wrote.
“The infighting is between the ‘hardliners’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!),” said Trump, calling the situation “CRAZY!”
Israel said to assess: US wants deal, but Iran won’t make one
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet met Thursday night to discuss preparations for a potential resumption of fighting on both the Iranian and Lebanese fronts.
According to the report, Jerusalem assessed that the US and Iran are getting closer to a resumed war, with senior officials telling the network: “Trump is extending his hand and the Americans want an agreement, but there’s no one to make one with.”
The outlet said Israel and the US are both preparing options for quick operations in Iran, that would be over in weeks – likely attacks on energy and national infrastructure.
For now, international flights from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport are set to resume on Saturday, the country’s ISNA news agency reported, days after the Islamic Republic reopened its airspace.
The first flights to resume will be to Istanbul and Muscat, the announcement said. Iran’s airspace was slammed shut by the US-Israeli war with Iran that began on February 28 and is only slowly being reopened during the ceasefire.
Officials announced last week that Mashhad airport, which serves the country’s second city in the far northeast, would reopen on Monday. On Friday, tracking data showed at least two international flights departing the airport, to Turkey and Oman respectively.
US offers $10m for leader of Iran-backed terror group in Iraq
Amid the developments in Iran, Kuwait’s army said two drones launched from Iraq targeted two northern border posts on Friday, causing damage. It added that there were no casualties.
Separately, the US State Department said it was offering up to $10 million for information on the leader of the Tehran-backed Iraqi group Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), which Washington designates as a terrorist organization.
US officials said in a social media post that they were seeking information on KSS leader Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji, also known as Abu Alaa al-Walai.
The group has “killed Iraqi civilians and attacked US diplomatic facilities in Iraq, as well as attacking US military bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria,” Washington said.
Article noted “you could be eligible for relocation and a reward” for information on al-Saraji’s whereabouts.
Al-Saraji has a seat within the Coordination Framework, the ruling Shiite alliance that holds the parliamentary majority.
Iran-backed groups have targeted the US embassy in Iraq’s capital, its diplomatic and logistics facility at Baghdad’s airport, and oil fields operated by foreign companies.
Iraq, which had recently regained some stability after decades of conflict, was immediately dragged into the Middle East war triggered when the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
Earlier this month, a similar reward was offered for the leader of Kataeb Hezbollah, a powerful Iraqi armed group that kidnapped US journalist Shelly Kittleson last month and held her for a week before setting her free.
Washington has piled pressure on Baghdad to fight the pro-Tehran groups by suspending cash shipments and freezing funding for security programs in Iraq, according to US media reports this week.
