Saturday’s meeting between US and Iranian officials in Islamabad is set to mark the highest-level talks between Washington and Tehran since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The talks also mark the first direct, face-to-face engagement between the two sides since 2015, when a landmark agreement was reached over Iran’s nuclear programme during then-President Barack Obama’s tenure.

That deal was later abandoned in 2018 by US President Donald Trump during his first term in office.

Following the collapse of the agreement, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had prohibited further direct negotiations with the United States.

The Islamabad meeting is being closely watched as a potential turning point in relations between the two countries after years of hostility.