For the first time since the conflict, Iran resumes commercial flights from Tehran Airport.

For the first time since the dispute with the US and Israel started around two months ago, Iran’s commercial flights from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport restarted on Saturday. According to state-run media, aircraft took out for Saudi Arabia’s Medina, Oman’s Muscat, and Istanbul. The action comes after Iran’s airspace was partially reopened earlier this month as part of a ceasefire with the United States that put an end to hostilities.

The reopening coincides with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s two rounds of meetings with Pakistan’s senior political and military figures following his Friday night arrival in Islamabad. As US envoys were scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Saturday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced that the Iranian group will resume discussions with senior leadership.

In an effort to revive ceasefire talks with Tehran, the White House announced that Donald Trump would dispatch Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Pakistan. But soon after Araghchi’s arrival, Iran said that any communication with US delegates would be indirect, with Pakistani officials acting as a messenger between the two countries. 

The most recent diplomatic effort comes after an extended ceasefire that has stopped the majority of combat but left economic problems in place, especially with regard to global oil supplies because of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Following Trump’s announcement earlier this week of an indefinite extension of the ceasefire in response to Islamabad’s request for more time for negotiation, Pakistan has been attempting to get Washington and Tehran back to the bargaining table.On February 27, Araghchi and the US envoys had hours of indirect discussions about Iran’s nuclear program in Geneva, but they were unable to come to a consensus. Israel and the United States began military action against Iran the next day.

Without going into any detail, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Trump had chosen to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out” and that Washington had witnessed “some progress from the Iranian side” in recent days.