Write a short, clear, factual news headline based on this article: Vendeline Von Bredow is the Senior Germany correspondent for The Economist, who’s also been covering the Hungarian election.
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Article: Vendeline Von Bredow is the Senior Germany correspondent for The Economist, who’s also been covering the Hungarian election.
The talks in Islamabad were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Strait of Hormuz, a major transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively blocked but Trump has vowed to reopen, is crucial to negotiations between the sides during a two-week ceasefire agreed last week.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the waterway remains among the main points of “serious disagreement” in talks between Iranian and US delegations in Islamabad.
The US military said two of its warships had passed through the strait and conditions were being set to clear mines, while Iran’s state media denied any US ships had transited the waterway.
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump posted on social media.
Ceasefire holds, but Strait of Hormuz remains at a standstill
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US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner flew in on Saturday and met Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for two hours before a rest, according to a source from mediator Pakistan.
The Iranian delegation arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the US bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said.
“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” another Pakistani source said in reference to the first round of talks aimed at ending the six-week conflict.
Iran’s state-affiliated Nournews said talks would resume later on Saturday night or Sunday.
Pope Leo, in an impassioned appeal on Saturday, urged world leaders to end what he called the “madness of war.”
Different demands
The war has sent global oil prices soaring, killed thousands of people and led to strikes on Gulf Arab states.
Before the talks began, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the US had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks. But a US official denied it.
As well as the release of assets abroad, Tehran is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz, payment of war reparations and a ceasefire across the region including in Lebanon, according to Iranian state TV and officials.
Iran: a mediator on the mediations
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Trump’s stated goals have varied during the campaign, but as a minimum he wants free passage for global shipping through the strait and the crippling of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme to ensure it cannot produce an atomic bomb.
US ally Israel, which joined the February 28 attacks on Iran that launched the war, has also been bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and says that conflict is not part of the Iran-US ceasefire.
Mutual distrust is high.
“We will negotiate with our finger on the trigger,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on state TV.
“While we are open to talks,we are also fully aware of the lack of trust; therefore, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.”
Tehran’s agenda includes aiming to collect transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
The biggest-ever disruption there has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.
Nevertheless, three Liberian- and Chinese-flagged supertankers passed through the strait on Saturday, shipping data showed, marking what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the ceasefire.
Dozens dead in Lebanon
More than 90 people were killed in Israeli air strikes across Lebanon on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said, bringing the war’s death toll to 2,020 people, including 165 children, nearly 250 women and 85 medics.
Hezbollah said it had conducted several military operations against Israeli positions on Saturday, both within Lebanese territory and in northern Israel.
Israeli and Lebanese officials plan talks in the US on Tuesday.
For the US-Iran talks, Islamabad, a city of more than 2 million people, was locked down with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.
Pakistan’s mediating role is a remarkable transformation for a nation that was a diplomatic outcast a year ago.
“This was a world war that Pakistan stopped. It played a big role and we should appreciate it,” Nasir Khan Abbasi, a dry cleaner, said at a market in Islamabad. “I really like this and I feel great that Pakistan’s name is shining in the world.”
In the campaign, Orbán – the EU’s longest-serving leader – has trailed in the polls as he faces an unprecedented challenge from Péter Magyar, a former elite member of Orbán’s Fidesz party.
The challenge to Orbán’s power has sent rightwing leaders from across the globe scrambling to rally behind him. This week, JD Vance turned up in Budapest for a two-day visit, the US vice-president telling reporters that his aim was to “help” Orbán win.
The US president, Donald Trump, has also repeatedly endorsed Orbán, most recently on Friday, when he vowed on social media that he would bring US “economic might” to the country if Orbán is re-elected. Months earlier, leaders including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu also made it clear that they were backing Orbán.
The result is an election that has played out on both the global and domestic stage, as Orbán argued that the country’s biggest threat is the war in Ukraine and he alone is capable of keeping the peace, while Magyar focused on domestic issues, with pledges to crack down on corruption, repair the strained relationship with the EU and funnel funds to the country’s crumbling public services.
After Magyar and his centre-right Tisza party crisscrossed the country, holding as many as six rallies a day, most polls have put his party in the lead. Analysts have expressed caution, however, as undecided voters and Hungarians abroad could still sway the result, as could alleged vote-buying.
For many in Hungary, Sunday’s vote will also be a test of how deeply Orbán’s political system is embedded, after the rightwing populist leader spent more than a decade working to transform Hungary into a “petri dish for illiberalism”: rewriting election laws to his party’s benefit, manoeuvring to put loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of the country’s media and clamping down on dissenting voices.
The result will be closely watched by the Maga movement and the global far right, many of whom have long cited Orbán as an inspiration and sought to follow his playbook.
Questions have also swirled over Orbán’s government and its relationship to Moscow amid allegations of Russian interference in the ballot, as well as audio that appeared to suggest a minister had shared confidential EU information with the Russian government.
Orbán’s government has cited the leaks – including a transcript in which Orbán reportedly told the Russian pesident, Vladimir Putin, “I am at your service” – as evidence of foreign interference.
At a Friday night rally for Orbán in Székesfehérvár, a city of about 100,000 people in central Hungary, hundreds of people turned up, eagerly waving flags and cheering as cameras panned over the city where the first kings of Hungary were crowned and buried. “I’m so happy to be here,” gushed Cecília, 78. “He’s the best leader in the world.”
Sunday was set to be the fifth time since 2010 that she had voted for Orbán “Viktor Orbán will win, of course, with a supermajority,” she said.
Others were more circumspect. “When it comes to polls, it depends on who does them, but the situation does seem tense. I’m worried for him,” said Sándor, 69. “He seems tired.”
Scattered among the crowd were also a handful of Magyar supporters. “I was curious to hear the prime minister speak,” said Richárd, 27.
What he had heard, he said, hinted at a fundamental difference between the two leading parties. “For 16 years, Fidesz has been campaigning on hatred and fear,” he said. “While Tisza has been trying to express hope at all of their events.”
