First phase of in-person negotiations ends with Iranian and US expert teams continuing to exchange texts

The first round of direct talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad has concluded with negotiators exchanging written texts on key issues, Iranian media reported.

Iran’s state media IRIB, citing a source close to the negotiating team, also reported another round of talks could take place later tonight or on Sunday.

The meeting on Saturday marked the most substantive direct engagement between Washington and Tehran in decades.

Earlier, the White House said the United States, Pakistan and Iran held a trilateral face-to-face session during the day, underscoring Islamabad’s central role as mediator in efforts to convert the fragile two-week ceasefire into a broader political settlement.

Pakistan is hosting the landmark negotiations, dubbed the “Islamabad Talks”, seen as the most significant since the 1979 Iranian revolution, aimed at ending the broader regional conflict amid a fragile two-week ceasefire brokered earlier this week.

The two delegations, after their arrival, held separate meetings with Pakistani officials in the capital to “make patchwork”

US Vice President JD Vance leads the American delegation, which includes special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Parliament Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf is leading the Iranian delegation, which includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and a deputy to the National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, among others.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is representing Islamabad in the talks, while army chief Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi are assisting him, according to insiders.

-- Agencies