From left, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad, listen to President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

U.S. President Donald Trump is sending envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan on Saturday to continue talks with Iran, the White House said Friday.

The pair will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was heading to Pakistan on Friday for “bilateral consultations,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed. Vice President JD Vance will not be traveling, the White House said.

The trip to Pakistan comes as officials there have been trying to get the United States and Iran to a second round of ceasefire negotiations.

The Trump administration also announced it is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil. The move, actualizes the administration’s threat to impose secondary sanctions on entities that do business with Iran, an effort to cut off Iran’s key source of revenue: its oil exports.