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With the\u00a0ceasefire in Iran still shaky<\/a>, U.S. Vice President JD Vance\u00a0headed Friday to Pakistan<\/a>\u00a0for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah militants traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Many issues could derail\u00a0the truce<\/a>\u00a0and the negotiations aimed at making a\u00a0broader deal<\/a>\u00a0to stop the fighting permanently.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the\u00a0talks set for Saturday<\/a>\u00a0would 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\u2019s traded oil once passed.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were expected to begin Tuesday in the U.S. capital, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Before his departure, Vance said he believed the negotiations with Iran will be \u201cpositive.\u201d<\/p>\n But he added, \u201cIf they\u2019re going to try and play us, then they\u2019re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.\u201d<\/p>\n In Islamabad, security forces locked down key parts of the Pakistani capital, erecting barricades along routes from the airport to the city.<\/p>\n Hours later, the Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker\u00a0Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf<\/a> arrived in Islamabad, Iranian state TV reported. The delegation included security, political, military, economic and legal teams. The report said negotiations will begin only if the other side accepts Iran\u2019s preconditions.<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Qalibaf posted on social media that two points he said had been mutually agreed on \u2014 a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of\u00a0blocked Iranian assets<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 have yet to be implemented.<\/p>\n \u201cThese two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Israel and Lebanon will have direct negotiations<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does\u00a0not include a pause<\/a>\u00a0in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of its backer, Iran.<\/p>\n The day the truce was announced, Israel\u00a0pounded Beirut with airstrikes<\/a>, killing more than 300 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It was the deadliest day in the country since the war began Feb. 28.<\/p>\n Trump said Thursday that he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial back the strikes.<\/p>\n Then on Friday, Israeli warplanes struck near a state security office in the southern town of Nabatieh, killing 13 officers, according to the Lebanese president\u2019s office. Israeli forces said they also hit about 10 rocket launchers in Lebanon that had fired toward northern Israel.<\/p>\n A day earlier, Netanyahu said he authorized the negotiations with Lebanon with the aim of disarming Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbors, which have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948.<\/p>\n Aoun\u2019s office confirmed that the two sides were set to negotiate after Lebanon and Israel\u2019s ambassadors to the U.S. held a call with Washington\u2019s ambassador to Lebanon to discuss terms. The U.S. State Department will mediate.<\/p>\n In a first statement since Israel announced direct negotiations with Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Naim Kassem urged Lebanese officials to stop offering \u201cfree concessions,\u201d but he did not take a clear stance on the talks.<\/p>\n Two days after Israel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no substitute for family,\u201d said Wissam Tabila, 35. \u201cEverything else can be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Strait of Hormuz remains a sticking point<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s closure of\u00a0the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>\u00a0has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driven stocks down and roiled the world economy. Tehran\u2019s control over the waterway has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war.<\/p>\n The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around $97 Friday, up more than 30% since the war started.<\/p>\n Before the conflict, over 100 ships passed through the strait each day \u2014 many carrying oil to Asia. With the ceasefire in place, only 12 have been recorded passing through.<\/p>\n Trump said Iran has little clout in the negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iranians don\u2019t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,\u201d Trump posted Friday. \u201cThe only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!\u201d<\/p>\n Questions linger about missile and nuclear programs<\/p>\n Questions also remain over the fate of Iran\u2019s missile and nuclear programs, which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war.<\/p>\n The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran\u2019s stockpile of\u00a0highly enriched uranium<\/a>, which could be used to make them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.<\/p>\n Trump has said that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, though Tehran has not confirmed that.<\/p>\n More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, a top Iranian officer told the state-run Iran newspaper. Iran\u2019s government has not provided any definitive death toll from the war.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n