Middle East crisis live: Witkoff and Kushner head to Pakistan for talks; Israel strikes Lebanon despite ceasefire

Islamabad is getting ready for what is hoped to be the latest round of talks between the US and Iran, with US envoys expected to travel to Pakistan. But Iran has ruled out direct negotiations with US representatives.

Nearly eight weeks after Donald Trump launched his assault on Iran, the White House has shifted from a strategy of shock-and-awe bombardments and leadership decapitation to a plan of sustained economic pressure as it tests the will of a regime practiced over decades at wars of attrition.

But as the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent, Andrew Roth, writes, US allies are worried that the White House is running out of ideas. At the same time, Washington has signalled it will punish its Nato allies for failing to support it more openly – while they suffer the worst economic consequences from the closure of the vital waterway.

“We don’t see a clear strategy – and we don’t think that there is one,” said a senior European diplomat in Washington. “And we are worried we will be left with the fallout.”

You can read more of Andrew’s analysis here:

While US envoys head to Islamabad in the hope of renewing peace talks with Iran, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza began voting Saturday in municipal elections in a first vote since the Gaza war, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment.

Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.

Most electoral lists are aligned with President Mahmud Abbas’s secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Fatah’s archrival, Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip.

A US-Kuwaiti journalist who was detained in Kuwait for online posts related to the Iran war has been released and has left the Gulf nation, after being acquitted of “spreading false information”.

A US state department official said on Friday that Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, 41, had left Kuwait.

Last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Shihab-Eldin had not been seen in public since 2 March, after being detained by Kuwaiti authorities during a crackdown by Gulf nations on people filming or posting footage from the conflict that started when the US and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.

Shihab-Eldin had been visiting family in Kuwait and was arrested on 3 March, according to CPJ. The media watchdog said he was charged with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

A Kuwaiti court acquitted him on all charges, CPJ said on Thursday, citing a statement from lawyers for Shihab-Eldin’s sisters.

The US said on Friday it had imposed sanctions on an independent “teapot” refinery in China for buying billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil, as Washington and Tehran head into another round of peace talks this weekend.

The Treasury Department targeted Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, which it said is one of Iran’s largest customers of crude oil and petroleum products. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it also imposed sanctions on about 40 shipping companies and vessels that operate as part of Iran’s shadow fleet.

China has said it opposes “illegal” unilateral sanctions. On Friday, its embassy in Washington said normal trade should not be harmed and called on Washington to stop “abusing” sanctions to target Chinese companies.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East, with Steve Witkoff and president Trump’s son-in-law headed to Pakistan in a bid to kickstart a new round of peace negotiations with Iran amid a fragile ceasefire, though the prospect of direct talks remained uncertain.

The White House said emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would engage in an “in-person conversation” with Iranian representatives, but Iranian state media said that direct negotiations were not on the cards.

Here is a quick recap of the latest:

• Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad late Friday. Earlier on social media, he wrote that he was travelling to Pakistan on a trip focused on “bilateral matters and regional developments.” He didn’t specify who he would meet.

• Shortly after Araghchi touched down, the country’s government made it clear there would be no direct negotiations with American government representatives during this visit. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmael Baqaei said on X that, “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the US”.

• Instead, Baqaei said Pakistani officials would convey messages between the delegations. Baqaei thanked the Pakistani government for its “ongoing mediation + good offices for ending American imposed war of aggression.”

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said in an interview on Fox News that Witkoff and Kushner would meet with Araghchi. “We’re hopeful that it will be a productive conversation and hopefully move the ball forward to a deal,” Leavitt said. She said vice-president JD Vance would not travel but that he remains “deeply involved,” and would be willing to go to Pakistan “if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time.”

• The talks planned for Saturday come as much of the world is on edge over a war that has snarled crucial energy exports through the strait of Hormuz, clouded the global economic picture and left thousands dead across the Middle East.

• The international community continues to denounce the humanitarian crises stemming from the conflict. European Council president António Costa said on Friday that the immediate opening of the strait of Hormuz without restrictions is “vital” for the world. Also, a World Food Programme representative today said that 45 million people will face food insecurity and malnutrition if the strait of Hormuz continues to be blocked.

• Pakistan has been trying to get US and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honouring Islamabad’s request for more time for diplomatic outreach.

• That hasn’t lowered tensions in the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime. Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships earlier this week, while the US is maintaining a blockade on Iranian ports and Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.