No US-Iran peace talks in sight, but Islamabad maintains security lockdown

Islamabad: For nearly a week, Pakistan's capital has been waiting for peace talks between the US and Iran to take place there, and although there is no sign the two sides ⁠will meet, large parts of the city remain sealed off by authorities.

Key roads leading into Islamabad are shut down and a strict security ⁠cordon envelops the administrative centre, the so-called "Red Zone". In the adjacent "Blue Area", cafes have run out of ‌fruit, markets are deserted and with no service ​at bus terminals, weekend commuters are struggling to get home.

Government officials say the measures are not ending any time soon and that they are ever ready for delegates, including US President Donald Trump, to show up at a moment's notice.

"We have been told that the talks could be held any day," one official said.

The current lockdown is the second in two weeks. Islamabad was first sealed off for ​talks between US and Iranian delegations on ⁠April 11 that ended without a deal. The city briefly reopened, then locked down again as Pakistan waits to host a second round that has yet to materialise.

For residents, uncertainty has become the hardest part. Islamabad is a city of transients, where many residents work during the week and return to family homes at the weekend. Now, that pattern has been ⁠interrupted.

Rizwana Raees, 35, ‌arrived at the intercity bus terminal on Thursday with a weekend bag, hoping to reach her hometown of Abbottabad for the first time in two weeks. The terminal was empty, no buses, no departures.

"Sometimes ‌the government and media say that the delegations are coming, sometimes they say they aren't," she said after she called her family for help. "Nobody knows and at ⁠this point, even if they come, no one will believe it till they see pictures and videos of them actually here."

Ultimately, her brother managed to hire a shared ride through an online ‌group to get her home.

Abdur Rehman Irshad, a manager at the bus station, said the terminal had ‌been shut for five to six days, cutting off more than 1,000 passengers each day. "People come here ‌because it's a popular station," he said. "But they are sent back."

In the lobby of an ‌upscale Islamabad hotel, journalists who have descended on the city from around the world to report on the talks have settled into a limbo of their own. Camera crews remain poised. Equipment is ready. Phones are checked and rechecked.

But after a week of waiting, there is little to report.

"I ⁠don't know how many ⁠times I'm going to have to request laundry," said Fadi Mansour, Al Jazeera's White House correspondent, who had flown in from Washington for what he thought would be a short trip. "We really don't know where we're headed."

The disruption has also hit the city's food supply. Saif-ur-Rehman Abbasi, 36, a fruit and vegetable seller, said trucks carrying produce had been held up for days outside the city's sealed perimeter.

"You can't have fruit and vegetables stuck in transport vehicles outside the city - they're sensitive, they're perishables," he said. "We have rent to pay and a business to run." At a popular cafe in the Blue Area, the staff said they had run ​out of strawberries and other ingredients were also in short supply.

The surrounding market was eerily quiet, with residents opting to ​avoid long detours around the closed-down Red Zone ​to get to the commercial area.

"When Islamabad opens up, Hormuz closes," a waiter at the cafe said, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, a sticking point in the negotiations. "When ​Hormuz opens, Islamabad closes."

As of Friday, both remained blocked, with no end in sight for either.