Iran’s president heads to Pakistan as US-Iran teams work to finalize a
war-ending deal
[June 23, 2026]
By MUNIR AHMED, DAVID RISING and JON GAMBRELL
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s president was traveling to Pakistan for talks
Tuesday with officials who have been mediating negotiations between
Tehran and Washington on a permanent end to the war in the Middle East,
even as discrepancies were emerging 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 on Monday led by US Vice President JD Vance
and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
In Tehran, Iran's capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei
told reporters that no visits have been scheduled for the U.N. watchdog
— the International Atomic Energy Agency — to see Iranian nuclear sites
bombed by the United States last year. Vance had previously said the
negotiations in Switzerland won an agreement for IAEA to inspect the
sites.
The IAEA has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war against
Iran in 2025, but has not been granted access to the bombed enrichment
sites targeted by the U.S. in that war.
Violence flared again in southern Lebanon, threatening the fragile
ceasefire there, as Israeli soldiers opened fire in the town of
Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa on Tuesday, killing two men, Lebanon’s state-run
National News Agency reported. It said the men were next to a bulldozer
that was working to clear the road at the time.
Separately, the agency said Israeli troops fired on residents on the
outskirts of the town of Hadatha as they were heading to carry out a
burial in the town’s ceremony with a Lebanese army escort.
Any renewal of heavy fighting could also threaten the broader diplomatic
talks, since Iran has demanded that a full ceasefire in Lebanon be part
of any comprehensive deal.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reports.
Iran's president makes his first visit to Islamabad since war started
Security was tight in the area of Islamabad where the Iranian president
was to meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif. It's Pezeshkian'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 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 the
Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the transit of oil 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 the ongoing technical talks in Switzerland have led to
the creation of specific negotiation groups, which include those focused
on sanctions relief, nuclear issues, reconstruction and monitoring,
according to a the state-run IRNA news agency.
The report quoted Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister leading
the technical talks, saying that 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 de-confliction 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 maintain
a free hand to attack militants launching attacks into northern Israel.
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The welcoming billboard, featuring Iranian President Masoud
Pezeshkian, right, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, center,
and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is displayed alongside of an
overhead bridge, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP
Photo/Anjum Naveed)
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 that 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
upon “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 at the
news conference 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 are signatories 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
later said “we’re going to take a look at it,” adding that he
wouldn’t say what action he would take but that the situation would
“get solved.”
“I’m a problem solver, I get problems solved real fast, including
with Bibi,” he said, using a nickname for Netanyahu.
The reports of Tuesday's deadly violence in Lebanon came after two
days of calm following a ceasefire brokered on Saturday. No Israeli
airstrikes or shelling have been reported since Sunday, 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 are expected to focus on developing a
plan for an Israeli withdrawal.
___
Rising reported from Bangkok and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Jamey
Keaten in Geneva and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to
this report.
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