Iran's defense ministry on Saturday said the United States was seeking a "face-saving" way to exit the war, as U.S. envoys travelled to Pakistan for peace negotiations.

U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to send his special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to participate in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the coming days, two administration officials tell CNN.

Vice President JD Vance is not currently planning to attend given Iran’s Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, is not participating either, the officials said. Ghalibaf is viewed internally by White House officials as the head of the Iran delegation and Vance’s counterpart.

Three Palestinian teenagers have been killed in the occupied West Bank this week in a spike of renewed violence, the latest shot dead by Israeli forces during a mid-week raid.

Palestinians in the northern West Bank village of Tell mourned the death of Youssef Shtayyeh on Friday after health officials said he was gunned down by Israeli forces in the nearby city of Nablus.

Iran’s top diplomat is expected to travel to Pakistan by this weekend for talks, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Friday, raising hopes for revived negotiations in the Iran-U.S. war.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected to be accompanied by a small government delegation and could arrive as soon as Friday, the officials said, without providing further details. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Rebuilding trust between Abu Dhabi and Tehran will take "ages and ages", UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash said Friday, after Iran targeted the United Arab Emirates during the Middle East conflict.

"You can't be attacked with 2,800 missiles and drones and then talk to me about trust. That will take ages and ages," Gargash said at a World Policy Conference in the town of Chantilly near Paris, as peace talks hang in the balance to end the war sparked in late February by Israeli-US strikes on Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States is under no pressure to end the war with Iran, but "the clock is ticking" for Tehran, as disruption from the conflict batters the world economy.

"I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn't -- The clock is ticking!" Trump said on social media, adding that Iran's military was destroyed and "their leaders are no longer with us, the Blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse."

The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the U.S. military said Thursday, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.

Air defense systems were activated in parts of Tehran on Thursday evening amid reports of hostile aerial activity, Iranian state media said in the first such reports since a ceasefire began.

The IRNA state news agency said the "sound of air defense firing" was heard in western Tehran, while the Mehr news agency reported that the systems were activated in several parts of the capital to counter "hostile targets", without elaborating further.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel was "prepared to resume the war against Iran," adding that Israel was awaiting a green light from the United States to return Iran to "the Stone Age".

"The IDF (Israeli army) is ready both defensively and offensively, and the targets have been marked," Katz said in a video statement.

The Pentagon blasted as cherry picking and false on Thursday a news report saying that the department assessed it could take six months to completely clear the Strait of Hormuz of Iranian-laid mines.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Pentagon shared the six-month estimate during a classified briefing for the members of the House Armed Services Committee, citing three unidentified officials familiar with the discussion.