No Iranian delegation has visited Islamabad for talks with US ‘so far’

Police officers stand guard at a checkpoint in Pakistan (Anjum Naveed/AP)

Iranian state television has issued an on-screen alert saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad… so far” as speculation about possible talks with the United States grows.

The alert likely reflects the internal debate ongoing within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the US Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.

Iranian state TV has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy.

So far, no official has acknowledged that a delegation will be heading to Islamabad, where officials have been on standby for days for the possible talks.

US vice president JD Vance is expected to lead an American team to the talks. Iran has offered no word on who could lead its delegation. Last time, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf led the Iranian side.

There has been no public discussion in Iran about how to resume talks and there has been pushback from hard-liners in Iran in recent days over resuming talks, particularly after the ship attack.

There had been at least one online push for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to issue a public proclamation about backing further negotiations or not — but the new Iranian leader has not issued any statement, nor has he been seen in any image since the war as Israeli and US officials say he was wounded in the conflict.

That has put Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the driver’s seat of governing the Islamic Republic. The guard’s forces have been key in the war and largely operated without oversight from Tehran in choosing targets.

Iran’s civilian leadership has broadly been quiet, particularly after Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote online this weekend that the Strait of Hormuz had been opened, only for that to be later denied by others in Tehran.

Iran has throttled traffic through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open seas, since shortly after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 to start the war. The US has instituted a blockade of Iranian ports in response.