U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the 11th (local time) ahead of cease-fire talks with Iran.
According to Reuters and others that day, the White House and the Pakistan prime minister's office said Vance and Sharif held talks. Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, also attended with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Vance arrived in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, the mediator, that day. The U.S. and Iranian delegations are expected to begin full-fledged negotiations after coordinating the negotiation format through Pakistan. The negotiation format and specific agenda remain unclear.
CNN said the United States and Iran were expected to move to face-to-face talks later that day after agreeing on an agenda through Pakistan, the mediator.
The Iranian delegation also met with Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif. Iran's state-run IRIB and Tasnim News Agency reported that Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who leads the Iranian delegation, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Sharif that day. IRIB said, "The details of the Iran-U.S. talks will be decided as a result of this meeting."
If the U.S. and Iranian delegations sit down together, it will be the first top-level meeting since diplomatic ties were severed in 1979. It will also be the first official face-to-face talks between the two countries since the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.