AP News53%
US and Iran prepare for high-level talks as Israel and Hezbollah trade more fire 28%
By JON GAMBRELL54% SAM MEDNICK0% MUNIR AHMED0%
4/9/2026, 11:12:05 PM
Keywords: Donald Trump, Jd Vance, Mideast Wars, Iran War, Israel, International Agreements, Iran Government, Benjamin Netanyahu, War And Unrest, Lebanon, Israel Government, Hezbollah, Military And Defense, Middle East, Naim Kassem, Politics, Joseph Aoun, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran, Religion, Volodymyr Zelenskyy
BS Summary: This article contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including False Dilemma, Negativity Bias, and Overconfidence Bias, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 17.3% saturation with 123 hits. Analysis detected 659 faulty-reasoning hits from 711 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.9% and a BS Rank of 28% (15,798 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 72.20% of the article peer group.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, U.S.
Vice President JD Vance headed Friday to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah militants traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Many issues could derail the truce and the negotiations aimed at making a broader deal to stop the fighting permanently.
Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the talks set for Saturday would not happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon.
And U.S.
President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Iran has no leverage except to restrict ship traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world's traded oil once passed.
Kuwait, meanwhile, said it was targeted by seven drone attacks since Thursday that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region.
Though the Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim.
Preparations for the talks between Iran and the U.S. appeared to be moving forward, with Vance boarding Air Force Two for the long flight to Islamabad.
Elsewhere, negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were expected to begin Tuesday in the U.S. capital, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's office said Friday.
Beirut is keen to hold direct talks to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, but under a ceasefire similar to the one with Iran.
In a first statement since Israel announced direct negotiations with Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem urged Lebanese officials to stop offering "free concessions," but he did not take a clear stance on the talks.
Two days after Israel's barrage, people sifted through the wreckage of their homes, trying to salvage furniture and personal mementos.
Some expressed gratitude that they did not lose loved ones.
"There is no substitute for family," said Wissam Tabila, 35.
"Everything else can be replaced."
Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driven stocks down and roiled the world economy.
Tehran's control over the waterway has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war.
The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $97 Friday, up more than 30% since the war started.
Before the conflict, over 100 ships passed through the strait each day — many carrying oil to Asia.
With the ceasefire in place, only 12 have been recorded passing through.
Trump said Iran has little clout in the negotiations.
"The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways," Trump posted Friday.
"The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!"
Questions also remain over the fate of Iran's missile and nuclear programs, which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war.
The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to make them.
Iran insists its program is peaceful.
Trump has said that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, though Tehran has not confirmed that.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, a top Iranian officer told the state-run Iran newspaper.
Iran's government has not provided any definitive death toll from the war.
In Lebanon, at least 1,953 people have been killed and 1 million have been displaced.
Over a dozen people have died in Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, while 23 civilians were killed in Israel.
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed.
In other developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces shot down Iranian‑designed Shahed drones in several Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war.
The missions, carried out with domestically produced interceptor drones, were part of efforts to help partners counter the same weapons Russia uses in Ukraine, he said.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mednick from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Kareem Chehayeb and Hussein Malla in Beirut contributed to this report.
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