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LONDON (AP) — London police arrested more than 200 people on Saturday during a protest against a ban on the group Palestine Action that the government has labeled a terrorist organization.

Metropolitan Police said they had detained 212 protesters between the ages of 27 and 82 for supporting the group.

Britain’s High Court ruled in February that the government’s decision to outlaw the protest group as a terrorist organization was unlawful, but it kept the ban in place while the government appeals.

Police had warned in advance of the protest organized by the group Defend Our Juries that it would make arrests.

Hundreds gathered in Trafalgar Square to show their support for the group, with some holding signs reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

Musician Robert Del Naja of the trip hop group Massive Attack said he held a sign in support of the group despite the possibility that an arrest could jeopardize his ability to travel.

“I thought this is ridiculous and then the police making that U-turn to arrest people again, I thought that is even more ridiculous,” he said. “So I’m going to hold a sign today.”

Protesters yelled “shame on you” at police carrying away protesters and mocked them for arresting the elderly.

“Yeah, she looks like a terrorist, doesn’t she mate?” a woman yelled as police led a protester with a walking stick to a police van.

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PARIS (AP) — A 9-year-old boy has been rescued after living locked in his father’s utility van in eastern France since 2024, according to the local prosecutor. The child has been hospitalized, and his father detained.

Police were alerted by a neighbor to the “sounds of a child” coming from a van on Monday in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders with Switzerland and Germany, according to a statement on Saturday from prosecutor Nicolas Heitz.

After forcing the van open, officers found the child “lying in a fetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement,″ Heitz said. The boy was clearly malnourished and could no longer walk after being in a seated position for so long, according to the statement.

The boy’s father told investigators that he put the child in the truck in November 2024 “to protect him” because his partner wanted to send the then 7-year-old to a psychiatric hospital, the prosecutor said.

Heitz said there was no medical record that the boy had any psychiatric problems before he disappeared and that he had had good grades in school.

The boy told investigators that he had “big difficulties” with his father’s partner and thought his father “had no choice” but to lock him up, according to the prosecutor. He said he hadn’t showered since 2024.

The father was handed preliminary kidnapping and other charges and kept in custody. His partner denied knowledge that the boy was in the van, according to the prosecutor. She was handed preliminary charges, including for failure to help a minor in danger, and released under judicial supervision.

The boy’s 12-year-old sister and the 10-year-old daughter of his father’s partner were placed in the care of social services.

The prosecutor’s office is investigating whether others were aware of the boy’s detention.

Friends and family told investigators they thought the boy was in a psychiatric institution. His teachers were told he had transferred to a different school, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The authorities have not released the names of the victim or his relatives.

Hagenbach residents contacted by The Associated Press expressed shock on Saturday over the cases and said they were unaware of the boy’s whereabouts, but didn’t want to discuss details.

The prosecutor declined to comment further to AP pending further investigation.

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ROME (AP) — In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.

Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.

History’s first U.S.-born pope didn’t mention the United States or President Donald Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo said. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

In the basilica pews was the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu. The U.S. was represented in the diplomatic corps by its deputy chief of mission, Laura Hochla, the U.S. Embassy said.

In the first weeks of the war, the Chicago-born Leo was initially reluctant to publicly condemn the violence and limited his comments to muted appeals for peace and dialogue. But Leo stepped up his criticism starting on Palm Sunday. And this week, he said Trump’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilization was “truly unacceptable” and called for dialogue to prevail.

On Saturday, Leo called for all people of good will to pray for peace and demand an end to war from their political leaders. The evening vigil in Rome, which featured Scripture readings and meditative recitation of the Rosary prayers, was taking place as simultaneous local prayer services were being held in the U.S. and beyond.

Praying for peace, Leo said, was a way to “break the demonic cycle of evil” to build instead the Kingdom of God where there are no swords, drones or “unjust profit.”

“It is here that we find a bulwark against that delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive,” he said. “Even the holy Name of God, the God of life, is being dragged into discourses of death.”

Leaders have used religion to justify their actions in the war. U.S. officials and especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have invoked their Christian faith to cast the U.S. as a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes.

Leo has said God doesn’t bless any war, and certainly not those who drop bombs.

Leo presided over the service sitting off to the side of the altar on a white throne, wearing his formal red cape and liturgical stole and praying with a Rosary in his hands. Many of the priests and nuns in the pews fingered Rosary beads as the “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” prayers were recited.

The Vatican is particularly concerned about the spillover of Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, given the plight of Christian communities in the south.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Saturday that two of its warships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz as part of a plan to start removing mines from the vital conduit for the global oil trade.

Sending the ships through the strait was aimed at “setting conditions for clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S Central Command posted on X.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Sergio Non and Alistair Bell)

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — A U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance is headed to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian representatives for the first such meeting since the war began more than a month ago that will test whether they can shore up a fragile ceasefire and pave the way for peace.

The ceasefire brokered by Pakistan still faces hurdles in the talks beginning Saturday, as Israel and Hezbollah militants have traded fire along the border of southern Lebanon and Iran has set conditions before negotiations can begin.

The Iranian delegation arrived early Saturday in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who said on X that discussions will only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked Iranian assets.

Hours earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump wished Vance good luck.

“We’ll find out what’s going on. They’re militarily defeated,” Trump said.

The normally bustling streets of Islamabad were deserted Saturday morning as security forces sealed roads ahead of the talks. Pakistani authorities urged residents to stay inside, leading the city to look like it was under curfew.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Friday that the conflict was entering a “difficult phase” as the sides try to shift from a temporary pause in fighting to a more lasting settlement, adding that they were at a “make-or-break” moment.

Before his departure from Washington on Friday, Vance said he believed the negotiations with Iran will be “positive.”

But he added, “If they’re going to try and play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in the U.S. capital, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Friday. Beirut is keen to hold direct talks to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, but under a ceasefire similar to the one with Iran.

Israel wants the Lebanese government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much like was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But it is unclear whether Lebanon’s army can establish a monopoly on arms or confiscate weapons from the militant group, which has resisted efforts to curb its strength for decades.

Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does not include a pause in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of its backer, Iran.

The day the truce was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It was the deadliest day in the country since the war began Feb. 28.

Trump said Thursday he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial back the strikes.

Then on Friday, Israeli warplanes struck near a state security office in the southern town of Nabatieh, killing 13 officers, according to the Lebanese president’s office. Israeli forces said they also hit about 10 rocket launchers in Lebanon that had fired toward northern Israel.

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driven stocks down and roiled the world economy. Tehran’s control over the waterway has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war.

The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $97 Friday, up more than 30% since the war started.

Before the conflict, over 100 ships passed through the strait each day, many carrying oil to Asia. With the ceasefire in place, only 12 have been recorded passing through.

Trump said Iran has little clout in the negotiations.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” Trump posted Friday. “The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — As the late afternoon sun settles over Freetown’s main transit park, Hawa Mansaray pulls up her motorized three-wheeled vehicle and steps away for a break and to pray.

Mansaray is one of a small but growing number of women entering a male-dominated commercial transport sector in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. The auto-rickshaws, known locally as kekeh, are an essential means of transport and until recently were almost exclusively driven by men.

“I have done different jobs since I came to Freetown but kekeh has done more for me,” said the 27-year-old single mother of one.

The rickshaws have become increasingly popular in Sierra Leone, filling the gaps in a strained public transport system as the West African country struggles to recover from its 1991-2002 civil war.

Freetown’s population has grown to more than 1.5 million, according to city estimates — roughly three times the size it was when much of its infrastructure was planned and built. Public transport systems have struggled to keep up, creating demand for commercial motorcycles and auto-rickshaws.

Although the rickshaws are usually rickety, run at minimal speed, and are considered less safe due to the maximum exposure that comes with how they’re built, commuters still prefer them because they’re easily accessible and offer maximum ventilation and relative comfort.

As more people turn to the rickshaws to earn a living, it’s also become a symbol of what women are capable of.

In the city, however, women are still “seen as people not adequate to do certain types of jobs,” said Marfoh Mariama Samai, a women’s rights advocate with Plan International Sierra Leone.

“So when a young woman ventures into a certain type of job, they are stigmatized,” she says of the female drivers.

Sierra Leone has one of the lowest levels of access to and availability of financial services in Africa, making it harder for groups such as women and rural residents to recover from economic shocks.

As a result, many women are confined to petty trading that offers little stability and makes them rely heavily on their husbands, said Samai.

“When the man gives you the money, he makes all the decisions,” she said of the patriarchal norms still in place in parts of Sierra Leone. “More young women should be encouraged to get into the transport sector.”

Mansaray knows the challenges of financial dependence firsthand. Originally from Kailahun District, where Sierra Leone’s civil war began, she was born at the height of the conflict, and had to drop out of school at the primary level.

As an adult, she turned to running small businesses to make ends meet for herself and her baby, after separating from her husband.

Learning to drive rickshaws for a living was initially not in her plans, but she took interest in it and paid to be trained after seeing women like her excelling in the business.

Mansaray now works under a company that requires her to make daily returns of 350 leones ($14), earning an average daily wage of 175 leones ($7), enough to cater to her family and considered high income for many in the country.

“I will advise my fellow women who aren’t employed to come into the game,” she adds.

Alimatu Kamara, another female rickshaw driver, can relate to Mansaray’s experience. She had been unemployed for years before deciding to venture into the business.

It’s been a great ride ever since, Kamara said, but added that a major challenge for her remains aggressive behavior from male riders, a common complaint among female drivers alongside safety concerns at night.

“Some women can panic,” she said. “It takes mind and determination to continue.”

Despite the difficulties, she plans to expand and purchase more rickshaws.

“We can’t just sit, waiting for office jobs. With jobs like kekeh, you can even make more money,” Kamara said.

The Sierra Leone Kekeh Riders Union has more than 1,000 registered members in western Freetown, but only about 20 are women, a number the union’s district chairman, Mustapha Thoronka, said has improved.

Thoronka said he supports efforts to train and assist female drivers, including advocating for loans for them.

“Whatever men can do, women can do better,” Thoronka said, hoping that through the business “they can support themselves and their families without relying on men.”

Thoronka is urging the government to provide more support, noting that it’s capital intensive, making it more difficult for women to get involved.

Mariama Barrie, a commuter, said she prefers female drivers.

“They are more careful than the men,” she said. For her, the growing presence of women in the kekeh sector sends a message particularly “to women who sit and wait to be spoon fed.”

“If you know how to ride, take kekeh … rather than sitting and waiting for handouts,” she said.

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By Parisa Hafezi and Angus McDowall

DUBAI, April 11 (Reuters) – Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is still recovering from severe facial and leg injuries suffered in the airstrike that killed his father at the beginning of the war, three people close to his inner circle told Reuters.

Khamenei’s face was disfigured in the attack on the supreme leader’s compound in central Tehran and he suffered a significant injury to one or both legs, all three sources said.

The 56-year-old is nonetheless recovering from his wounds and remains mentally sharp, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He is taking part in meetings with senior officials via audio conferencing and is engaged in decision-making on major issues including the war and negotiations https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-iran-ceasefire-what-we-know-2026-04-08/ with Washington, two of them said.

The question of whether Khamenei’s health allows him to run state affairs comes during Iran’s moment of gravest peril for decades, with high-stakes peace talks with the United States opening in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday.

The accounts of the people close to Khamenei’s inner circle provide the most detailed description of the leader’s condition for weeks. Reuters couldn’t independently verify their descriptions.

Khamenei’s whereabouts, condition and ability to rule still largely remain a mystery to the public, with no photo, video or audio recording of him published since the air attack and his subsequent appointment as his father’s replacement on March 8.

Iran’s United Nations mission did not respond to Reuters questions about the extent of Khamenei’s injuries or the reason he has not yet appeared in any images or recordings.

Khamenei was wounded on February 28, the first day of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel, in the attack that killed his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989. Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife, brother-in-law and sister-in-law were among other members of his family killed in the strike.

There has been no official Iranian statement on the extent of Khamenei’s injuries. However, a newsreader on state television described him as a “janbaz”, a term used for those badly wounded in war, after he was named supreme leader.

The accounts of Khamenei’s injuries tally with a statement https://www.reuters.com/world/irans-new-supreme-leader-wounded-likely-disfigured-hegseth-says-2026-03-13/ made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on March 13 when he said that Khamenei was “wounded and likely disfigured”.

A source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments told Reuters that Khamenei was believed to have lost a leg.

The CIA declined to comment on Khamenei’s condition. The Israeli prime minister’s office didn’t respond to questions.

Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said that, regardless of the severity of his injuries, it was unlikely the new and inexperienced leader would be able to command the overarching power wielded by his father. While he is seen to represent continuity, it could take years for him to build up the same level of automatic authority, Vatanka added.

“Mojtaba will be one voice but it will not be the decisive one,” he said. “He needs to prove himself as the credible, powerful, overriding voice. The regime as a whole has to make a decision in terms of where they are going to go.”

One of the people close to Khamenei’s circle said images of the supreme leader could be expected to be released within one or two months and that he might even appear in public then, although all three sources stressed he would only emerge when his health and the security situation allowed.

‘WE DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HIS WORLD VIEW’

In Iran’s theocratic system of rule, ultimate power is meant to be wielded by the supreme leader, a venerable Shi’ite Muslim cleric appointed by an assembly of 88 ayatollahs. The leader oversees the elected president while directly commanding parallel institutions including the Revolutionary Guards, a powerful political and military force.

Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, enjoyed unquestioned authority as the charismatic leader of the revolution and the most learned cleric of his day.

His successor, Ali Khamenei, was a less revered cleric but had served as Iran’s president. He spent decades cementing his authority after his appointment in 1989, partly through promoting the power of the Revolutionary Guards.

His son Mojtaba does not command absolute power in the same way, senior Iranian sources have previously told Reuters. The Revolutionary Guards, who helped steer https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-new-leader-still-silent-was-elevated-by-revolutionary-guards-2026-03-10/ him into the top job after his father’s assassination, have emerged as the dominant voice https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-revolutionary-guards-take-wartime-lead-ensuring-harder-line-sources-say-2026-03-04/ on strategic decisions during the war. Iran’s U.N. mission didn’t respond to questions about the power wielded by the Guards and the new supreme leader.

As an influential figure in his father’s office, Khamenei had previously spent years nL1N3ZW031 involved in exercising power at the top levels of the Islamic Republic, officials and insiders have said, building ties with senior Guards figures.

While he is widely seen as likely to continue his father’s hardline approach due to his links to the Guards, we don’t know much about his world view, said Vatanka at the Middle East Institute.

Khamenei’s first communication with Iranians as supreme leader came on March 12, saying in a written statement read out by a television news presenter that the Strait of Hormuz should stay closed and warning regional countries to shut U.S. bases.

His office has since issued a few other brief written statements from him, including on March 20 when he welcomed in the Persian new year, which he named the “year of resistance”. Public statements of policy on Iran’s war stance, its approach towards diplomacy, neighbours, ceasefire negotiations and domestic unrest, have been made by other senior officials.

‘WHERE IS MOJTABA?’ MEMES CIRCULATE ONLINE

Khamenei’s absence is widely discussed on Iranian social media and in messaging app groups, when the country’s patchy internet allows, with conspiracy theories widespread about his condition and who is running the country.

One popular meme circulating online is a picture of an empty chair under a spotlight with the slogan “Where is Mojtaba?”

However, some government supporters, including a senior member of the Basij militia, a volunteer paramilitary group run by the Revolutionary Guards, said that it was important for Khamenei to keep a low profile, given the threat posed by waves of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that have already wiped out much of the country’s leadership.

A lower-ranking Basij member agreed.

“Why should he appear in public? To become a target for these criminals?” Mohammad Hosseini, from the city of Qom, said in a text message.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additonal reporting by Jonathan Landay in Washington and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Pravin Char)

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By Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD, April 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. and Iran were to hold negotiations in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday seeking to end their six-week-old war, although Tehran threw the talks into doubt by saying they could not begin without commitments on Lebanon and sanctions.

The U.S. delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance and including President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, was on its way to Islamabad after a refuelling stop in Paris.

The Iranian delegation, led by ‌parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived on Friday.

IRAN HAS ‘NO CARDS’, TRUMP SAYS

Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have killed nearly 2,000 people since the start of the fighting in March. He said talks would not start until those pledges were fulfilled.    

Israel and the U.S. have said the Lebanon campaign is not part of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire while Tehran insists it is.

Qalibaf said separately that Iran was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

The White House did not immediately comment on the Iranian demands, but Trump posted on social media that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said.

Vance, speaking as he headed to Pakistan, said he expected a positive outcome but added: “If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Preliminary discussions have been separately held by Pakistani officials with advance teams from both sides, sources in Islamabad said.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said these included 70 members from Tehran, including technical specialists in economic, security and political fields as well as media personnel and support staff. About 100 members of an advance U.S. team were in the city, a Pakistani government source said.

“We’re very positive,” said another Pakistani source close to the discussions.

Asked if talks would end on Saturday, the source said: “Too early to say. They have instructions to close a deal or walk away. Hence not in a rush. These talks are not on the clock.”

Islamabad was under an unprecedented lockdown ahead of the talks with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

“We have deployed multi-layer security for this event, which is based on coordination, intelligence and constant monitoring for zero disruption and full control,” Pakistan’s junior interior minister, Talal Chaudhry, told Reuters.

Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war on Tuesday, which has halted U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. 

But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed the parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN LEBANON

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials said, amid the conflicting accounts on what those talks would cover.

Lebanon’s presidency said the two had held a phone call on Friday and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks under U.S. mediation. But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations” and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.    

Israeli attacks continued across southern Lebanon on Friday. One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of Lebanon’s state security forces, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.

Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rocket salvos at northern Israeli towns in response.

Hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched the biggest attack of the war, killing more than 350 people in surprise strikes on heavily populated areas, Lebanese authorities said.           

Tehran’s agenda at the talks also includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgment of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran’s ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.   

The hard line taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday. 

Khamenei, yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the war’s first day, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

“We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country,” he said.

Although Trump has declared victory and degraded Iran’s military capabilities, the war has not achieved many of the aims he set out at the start: to deprive Iran of the ability to strike its neighbours, dismantle its nuclear programme, and make it easier for its people to overthrow their government.

Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of hitting its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400 kg (900 pounds) of uranium enriched near the level needed to make a bomb. Its clerical rulers, who faced a popular uprising just months ago, withstood the onslaught with no sign of organised opposition.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by William Mallard)

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A U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance is headed to Pakistan for talks with Iranian officials aimed at shoring up a shaky ceasefire and paving the way for a permanent end to the fighting. It marks the first such meeting since the war began more than a month ago.

The ceasefire brokered by Pakistan still faces hurdles in the talks beginning Saturday, as Israel and Hezbollah militants have been trading fire along the border of southern Lebanon and Iran has set conditions before negotiations can begin.

The Iranian delegation arrived early Saturday in Islamabad, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who said on X that discussions will only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon the release of blocked Iranian assets.

Hours earlier, President Donald Trump wished Vance good luck. “We’ll find out what’s going on. They’re militarily defeated.”

In Islamabad, the streets of a normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of the talks.

Here is the latest:

The Iranian delegation is scheduled to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at noon Saturday, according to the Tasnim news agency, which is close to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s negotiating team, chaired by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Abbas Arghchi, met late Friday with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.

The meetings come ahead of high-stakes talks between Iran and the U.S. in Islamabad which aim at reaching a permanent end of the war in the Middle East.

Pakistan’s government has set up a state-of-the-art media center to facilitate Pakistani and foreign journalists covering the talks between the United States and Iran, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.

Tarar told reporters the facility at the Jinnah Convention Center offers high-speed internet and a range of free services to support media coverage. Shuttle services have been arranged to transport journalists between the media center and a hotel in the city’s main shopping mall.

Pakistan has announced visa-on-arrival for journalists and official delegations traveling from the United States and Iran for the talks, which have been dubbed the “Islamabad talks.”

Inside the media center, rows of workstations equipped with laptops and charging points allow reporters to file stories. Large screens broadcast major domestic and international television channels. The facility also has designated areas for live stand-ups, press briefings and interviews.

The streets of Pakistan’s normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of talks between high-level officials from Iran and the U.S. to end their nearly six-week war. Pakistani authorities urged Islamabad residents to stay inside, leading the city to look like it was under curfew.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is leading the American delegation, which was expected to arrive before noon.

Iranian negotiators, headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, arrived late Friday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the conflict was entering a “difficult phase” as the sides try to shift from a temporary pause in fighting to a more lasting settlement. He said they were at a “make-or-break” moment.

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