A U.S. delegation will travel to Pakistan this weekend for high-stakes ceasefire talks with Iran's foreign minister, as Islamabad continues its role as a key mediator between the two sides.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday that special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will head to Islamabad to meet with Iranian officials.

“They want to talk in person. And so the president, as I’ve said many, many times to all of you, [is] always willing to give diplomacy a chance,” she told reporters. “So, Steve, Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out. We hope progress will be made and we hope that positive developments will come from this meeting.”

Leavitt added that Vice President JD Vance is on standby to travel to Pakistan if Trump determines it is necessary.

Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, is expected in Pakistan on Friday for what Tehran described as “bilateral consultations." Araghchi wrote on X that he was on his way to Pakistan, Oman and Russia, on a trip focused on “bilateral matters and regional developments.”

The renewed diplomatic push comes after talks failed to materialize on Tuesday. Trump subsequently announced the U.S. would extend its ceasefire indefinitely, a decision he said came at the request of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so, and upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said the ceasefire would remain in place until Iran’s leaders present a unified proposal.

The decision comes as the U.S. military continues its blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has also ordered forces to “shoot and kill” small boats suspected of laying mines.

The strategic waterway—a vital global shipping route—has been disrupted since the conflict began in late February. Iran has maintained pressure on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the U.S. campaign against Iran has delivered “rapid and decisive results” and is entering a new phase aimed at forcing Tehran to negotiate, as the conflict approaches the eight-week mark.

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Iran’s government has named Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late supreme leader, as the country’s new ruler in what was described as a defiant move as the war involving Iran intensifies and questions grow about the future of the regime and its nuclear program.

Former CIA analyst and former chief of staff to President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, Fred Fleitz, said the Trump administration has been holding press conferences “to reassure the American people” about the purpose and progress of the U.S. military operation and to emphasize that it “is not going to be a never-ending war.”

Fleitz said President Trump has framed the U.S. commitment as short-term, adding, “Maybe this will be over next week. I don't think it's going to take more than a couple of weeks.”

Fleitz also addressed uncertainty about the status of Iran’s supreme leader, after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said he could not discuss it. “I have heard he was seriously injured in an airstrike. He may have lost a leg. I think he's conscious, but I frankly, I don't know more than that. I think he was seriously injured,” Fleitz said.

Fleitz described the naming of the new ruler as both defiance and an attempt by Iran’s ruling clerics to elevate the leader’s father as a martyr, even though, he said, the regime is officially opposed to hereditary rule. Fleitz said the move may resonate with a minority of the public but predicted it would not change broader sentiment. “That may work for 20% of the population, but 80% of the Iranian population hated his father,” he said.

Fleitz said Iran is under intense economic and military pressure and argued that while the U.S. president cannot choose Iran’s next leader, the U.S. has applied significant pressure on the country to select someone “who we can deal with,” and who would move Iran away from what he described as an aggressive posture and being a state sponsor of terror.

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