US and Iran prepare for high-level talks as Israel and Hezbollah trade more fire

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, U.S. Vice President JD Vance headed Friday to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Many issues could derail the truce and the negotiations aimed at making a broader deal to stop the fighting permanently. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the talks set for Saturday would not happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon. And U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Iran has no leverage except to restrict ship traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world's traded oil once passed. Kuwait, meanwhile, said it was targeted by seven drone attacks since Thursday that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though the Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim. Preparations for the talks between Iran and the U.S. appeared to be moving forward, with Vance boarding Air Force Two for the long flight to Islamabad. Elsewhere, negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were expected to begin next week in the U.S. capital, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter. Before his departure, 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." In Islamabad, security forces locked down key parts of the Pakistani capital, erecting barricades along routes from the airport to the city before the delegations arrived. Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations 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 that 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 presidency. Israeli forces said they also hit about 10 rocket launchers in Lebanon that had fired toward northern Israel. Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, posted on social media that two points that he said had been mutually agreed on — a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked Iranian assets — have yet to be implemented. "These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin," he wrote Friday. A day earlier, Netanyahu said he authorized the negotiations with Lebanon with the aim of disarming Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors, which have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948. The Lebanese government did not respond. In a first statement since Israel announced direct negotiations with Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem urged Lebanese officials to stop offering "free concessions," but he did not take a clear stance on the talks. Two days after Israel's intense barrage, people sifted through the wreckage of their homes, trying to salvage furniture and personal mementos. Some expressed gratitude that they did not lose loved ones. "There is no substitute for family," said Wissam Tabila, 35. "Everything else can be replaced." Strait of Hormuz remains a sticking point 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!" Questions linger about missile and nuclear programs Questions also remain over the fate of Iran's missile and nuclear programs, which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war. The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to make them. Iran insists its program is peaceful. Trump has said that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, though Tehran has not confirmed that. More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, a top Iranian officer told the state-run Iran newspaper. Iran's government has not provided any definitive death toll from the war. In Lebanon, more than 1,888 people have been killed and 1 million have been displaced. Over a dozen people have died in Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, while 23 civilians were killed in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed. In other developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces shot down Iranian‑designed Shahed drones in several Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war. The missions, carried out with domestically produced interceptor drones, were part of efforts to help partners counter the same weapons Russia uses in Ukraine, he said. ___ Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong; Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee and Will Weissert in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla in Beirut contributed to this report.