US envoys are expected in Pakistan, but there is no guarantee of a meeting with the Iranian negotiator.

American envoys are expected in Islamabad on Saturday, where an Iranian delegation has begun talks with the Pakistani government, without any guarantee of direct discussions between the two belligerents to end the war in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the truce on the Lebanese front still appears just as precarious.

Triggered by a US and Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, the regional conflict has left thousands dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and shaken the global economy.

Islamabad has been waiting for days for a resumption of US-Iranian talks, which began two weeks ago and were interrupted after about fifteen hours, even though the ceasefire has been unilaterally extended indefinitely by the United States.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday evening for talks with senior Pakistani officials and met with the powerful Pakistani army chief, Asim Munir, according to images broadcast on X by the Iranian embassy in the Pakistani capital.

But "no meeting is planned between Iran and the United States," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai told X, adding that his country's positions would be conveyed to the American side through Pakistani mediators.

Donald Trump's emissaries, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will travel to Pakistan on Saturday for talks "with representatives of the Iranian delegation," the White House had previously stated, asserting that this meeting was at Tehran's request.

Vice President JD Vance, who led the American delegation two weeks ago, could join them later if progress is made, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.

"The enemy is looking for a way to save face to extricate itself from the quagmire" of war, commented the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Defense on Saturday, quoted by the Isna agency.

After Pakistan, Mr. Araghchi is to continue a regional tour that will take him to Oman and Russia.

Meanwhile, Tehran's international airport reopened on Saturday, Iranian state television announced, with initial departures "thanks to the efforts of national airlines" to destinations such as Medina, Muscat and Istanbul.

And on Saturday, Iran carried out another execution of a man convicted of cooperating with Israel during the major demonstrations in January.

- Six dead in Lebanon -

Maritime traffic remains at a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed before the conflict, and which is now subject to a double Iranian and American blockade.

Global markets reacted with very measured enthusiasm to the prospect of renewed negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Brent crude, the international benchmark, saw a moderate rise, closing at $105.33 (+0.25%) on Friday.

On the Lebanese front, the ceasefire, which was extended for three weeks by the US president on Thursday evening after discussions between Israeli and Lebanese representatives in Washington, remains severely tested.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that six people were killed and two wounded on Friday by Israeli strikes in the south of the country.

The Israeli army claimed to have killed six Hezbollah members in a skirmish, after stating that the pro-Iranian movement had shot down one of its drones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah of attempting to "sabotage" the "process aimed at achieving a historic peace between Israel and Lebanon".

The Shiite movement, which brought Lebanon into the war by resuming hostilities with Israel on March 2, called on the Lebanese state to "withdraw from direct negotiations with Israel" and said that extending the truce made "no sense" in view of Israel's persistent "acts of hostility".

Direct negotiations with Israel "would mean recognition of the enemy," Ahmad Choumari, 74, told AFP. He had decided to leave the city of Saida, where he had taken refuge, to return to his southern village after the truce was extended.

He hopes, however, "that the ceasefire will become permanent."

But on Friday, the Israeli army issued a new evacuation order for a village in southern Lebanon, the first such order since the ceasefire extension was announced. The official Lebanese news agency ANI later reported an Israeli airstrike on Deir Aames.