US–Iran High-Level Talks in Islamabad Amid Rising Regional Tensions

[0:00] the u.s and iran are set to hold negotiations in islamabad the highest level in-person talks [0:06] between the two nations since the 1979 islamic revolution vice president jd vance is leading [0:12] the american team which includes special envoy steve whitkoff and trump's son-in-law jared kushner [0:18] on the iranian side the delegation includes parliamentary speaker muhammad bagat kalibaf [0:22] and foreign minister abbas arahchi pakistan's prime minister shabazz sharif has described the [0:28] talks as make or break u.s president donald trump says he'll wait to see what happens but that iran [0:34] is militarily defeated one way the other it's going well the uh the navy's gone the air force is gone [0:43] all anti-aircraft is gone the leaders are gone the whole place is gone so we'll see how it turns out [0:49] don't forget we don't use the straight other countries use the straight so we do have other [0:54] countries coming up and they'll help out but we don't we don't use it uh it won't be easy it won't [1:00] be i would say this uh we will have that open fairly soon now tehran insists that billions of dollars in [1:09] frozen assets should be released and israel should end its attacks on lebanon the lebanese and israeli [1:15] governments have agreed to meet for direct talks in washington dc on tuesday well we have a team of [1:20] correspondents covering all the latest developments in amman washington dc tehran and islamabad and [1:26] islamabad is where we start with kamal haider who's in the pakistani capital kamal you are actually on [1:32] the bus that's taking journalists to the venue of those stocks tell us about how this is all going to [1:38] go down well as you mentioned we're on a bus because of the security precautions and they're running [1:48] shuttles to the area where the uh journalists are supposed to be reporting from now the pakistani prime [1:55] minister made it very clear that these are make or break talks the stakes are very high the entire [2:02] world is now focused on which way these stocks will go any failure would mean renewal of hostilities [2:10] already thousands of people have been killed and there is a hope and expectation that perhaps the two [2:16] sides will be able to reach some middle ground so all eyes are on this particular meeting between the [2:23] u.s and iran mediated by pakistan jd vance arrived earlier today the iranian team had come late night [2:32] past midnight they were given an escort by pakistani aircraft once they entered into pakistani airspace the [2:39] u.s was given the same treatment so pakistan is spinning its hope on success but there is cautious [2:46] optimism as to which way these stocks can go are we getting any details kamal about the format of the [2:53] talks the timeline as well how how it's all going to happen well apparently there's been preliminary [3:03] meetings between the lead teams so they would have uh ironed out uh the nitty-gritty of those details [3:11] pakistan of course is going to be the intermediary these are going to be indirect talks it depends on [3:17] the success of those talks as to whether the two sides will be able to meet face to face but for [3:23] now pakistan will be acting as mediator uh just as we saw in geneva and in oman earlier when the umanis [3:32] were going between the american and iranian teams al jazeera's kamal haida in islamabad on his way to [3:40] those crucial talks between the americans and iranians that are happening today in the pakistani [3:46] capital let's head over now to tohida saadi who's in tehran to heed the iranians as kamal said they [3:52] arrived late last night in islamabad carrying a lot of symbolism what what do these talks represent for [3:59] iran well we have to be very clear that we're talking about one of the most or perhaps the most [4:08] unprecedented diplomatic interaction between tehran and washington after confrontation ramped up to an [4:16] exceptional level never seen before and right now uh these talks are representing first and foremost [4:24] a moment of pause for civilians suffer and pain if you look at the airplane carrying mohammed bagir [4:30] ghalibaf head of iranian delegation you can see the pictures showing the uh actually images of [4:38] school students girls who were killed at the very first day of these attacks in this in an elementary [4:45] school in minab more than 160 students were killed on that attack and ghalibaf decided to carry the [4:54] pictures and some of the bags of these students calling them calling them martyred students uh part of [5:03] the iranian delegation but we know that the damage and destruction didn't stop there the red [5:08] crescent said more than 850 schools 32 universities more than 300 healthcare facilities were damaged in [5:18] 40 days of the airstrikes by the americans and israelis that is part of the message and part of the [5:26] pain and suffer that iranians experienced and the delegation is trying to represent that but also [5:31] they're trying to represent a chance to be given to diplomat diplomatic engagement despite the cloud [5:39] of mistrust that exists when it comes to iranian vantage points pertaining to any rapprochement to [5:44] washington tell us more tohead about the makeup of the iranian delegation and what it says about what [5:52] they want to see achieved in these talks it actually tells a lot the head of delegation is mohammed [6:01] bagir ghalibaf he is the speaker of the parliament with deep roots in the political establishment not [6:07] only that but also profound roots when it comes to the military sphere and obviously domestically speaking [6:15] he is going to be like a bridge to connect different parts of the iranian governance system [6:21] including the military sphere when it comes to a potentially agreed um actually deal at the end of [6:28] the day if that is reached also muhammad bagir also abbas araghi a former negotiator a current negotiator [6:37] and foreign minister of the country is there alongside his deputies and we know that uh state tv [6:44] says at least there will be three committees first an economic committee headed by the uh governor of [6:52] iran's central bank also there is going to be a legal committee added by the legal deputy foreign minister [6:58] as well as there will be a military a committee headed by the secretary of defense council of the [7:04] country these countries these committees by themselves are indicative of the iran's intentions [7:12] iran's objectives when it comes to these trajectory of talks and also there is something interesting and [7:17] this is the presence of one of the members of the parliament nabavian who is well known inside iran for his [7:25] conservative vantage point and sort of negative vantage point when it comes to any rapprochement to [7:32] the americans all in all this combination is indicative of a sort of comprehensive [7:38] willingness beyond the nuclear dossier and within the entirety of the political establishment in iran [7:44] to get engaged in a diplomatic engagement tohid assadi in tehran thank you very much for that let's [7:50] head over to washington dc and john hendron john jd vance the u.s vice president leading the american [7:57] delegation how should we interpret this choice and what the americans want to achieve in these stocks [8:03] fully the presence of jd vance elevates these negotiations steve whitkoff and jared kushner had [8:10] previously negotiated with the iranians they met vance at the end of that red carpet having traveled [8:17] separately there but from the administration's perspective they didn't get the job done so vance [8:22] is being brought in as the closer and he brings some special credentials here he is known as an [8:27] isolationist he is believed to have been against this war all along uh one of the stronger voices [8:35] for keeping the u.s out of foreign wars so he might seem more receptive to the iranians he meets there [8:43] and he's going to come there with some demands he said the president gave him a very specific guidance [8:49] on this we don't know what that guidance is but i think we can presume based on what trump has been [8:53] saying that number one is to keep the strait of hormuz open he might say the united states doesn't really [8:59] use that straight but he knows better than anybody if that straight is clogged up and iran is able to [9:04] hold up traffic that americans pay those higher oil prices just as much as everyone else does this is an [9:10] unpopular war and it's driving up prices and inflation here in the united states he wants to [9:16] end that so he needs an off ramp he's also going to want to stop iran from getting closer to a nuclear [9:23] weapon so that's going to mean ending any enrichment of uranium there what he calls the nuclear dust [9:29] so those would be the top priorities it's not clear whether there are other red lines but it seems as [9:34] is everything else would be negotiable those are the two main things the administration is going in [9:40] for and they're asking jd vance to be the closer thank you very much for that john hendron in washington dc