October 1, 2026
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan announced Sunday that it will soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran, though there was no immediate word from Washington or Tehran, and it was unclear whether discussions on the monthlong war would be direct or indirect.
"Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the U.S. have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks. Pakistan will be honored to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in the coming days,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said after top diplomats from Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia met in Islamabad.
Pakistan later said the diplomats had departed for their home countries. The talks were originally scheduled to continue on Monday.
Pakistan's foreign ministry did not answer questions, and Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment.
Islamabad has emerged as a mediator, having relatively good ties with Washington and Tehran, after what Pakistani officials call weeks of quiet diplomacy.
Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover after some 2,500 U.S. Marines trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East. He said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.
Iran also threatened to attack the homes of U.S. and Israeli “commanders and political officials” in the region. A spokesperson for the Iranian military's joint command, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, cited the “targeting of residential homes of the Iranian people in various cities” and other “malicious actions,” state media reported.
Meanwhile in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will widen its invasion of Lebanon, expanding the “existing security strip” in that country’s south while targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group. No details were released.
The war has threatened global supplies of oil, natural gas, and fertilizer, and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. Now the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels ' entry into the war could threaten shipping on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to the Red Sea.
Israel’s military said that its air force had intercepted two drones launched from Yemen very early on Monday morning.
Late on Sunday, Israel’s military said that over the past 24 hours its fighter jets had dropped more than 120 munitions in Tehran, targeting sites used for weapons research, development, and production. Around the same time, Iran’s state television said power was back in areas of Tehran that had experienced outages after attacks on electricity facilities.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for launching their first attack in the current war -- a missile fired at Israel, which was also intercepted -- early on Saturday morning.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Iranian attacks against Israel and U.S. military assets and other sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states. The war continues on the digital front as well.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the meetings in Pakistan are aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators. Pakistan said the foreign ministers met Sunday without U.S. or Israeli participation.
Iranian officials have rejected a U.S. 15-point “action list” as a framework for a possible peace deal and publicly dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure. But Iran’s state broadcaster has reported that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal, reportedly calling for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations, and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships in the strait, agreeing late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass through.
An adviser to the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, called for any settlement to the war to include “clear guarantees” that Iranian attacks on neighbors will not be repeated. He said Iran's government has become “the main threat” to Persian Gulf security, and called for compensation for attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Iran warned of escalation after Israeli airstrikes hit several universities, including ones that Israel claimed were used for nuclear research and development. Concerns over Iran's nuclear program are at the heart of tensions.
The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of U.S. universities in the region “legitimate targets” unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.
U.S. colleges have campuses in Qatar and the UAE, including Georgetown, New York, and Northwestern universities. The American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University, also in Beirut, moved classes online and called it a precautionary measure.
Iran's Foreign Ministry has said dozens of universities and research centers have been hit, including the Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology.
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