Ahead of the US-Iran talks in Islamabad on Saturday, Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, on Thursday said Tel Aviv does not trust Pakistan because it sponsors terrorism but maintained his government is supportive of the ceasefire and is relying on the Americans to do whatever is necessary to deal with the challenges facing the region.

In an interview to PTI, Azar said: "We don’t trust Pakistan. I think that they have been behaving very problematically when it comes to sponsoring of terrorism. They don’t recognise our state. The Americans have decided to get their assistance, their facilitation. That is their choice. From our point of view, we trust our American friends to do whatever is needed to deal with the challenges we have in front of us.

"They have done that in the past also when we did negotiations. For dealing with Gaza, they took the services of problematic countries like Turkey and Qatar that were supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, another terrorist organisation. We hope at the end of the day, we will achieve the result and we are going to make sure together with our American friends that these threats are neutralised."

Apart from Pakistan's role as the unlikely peacemaker, Israel had welcomed the ceasefire on Wednesday. Azar articulated it in a post on X on Wednesday itself: "Israel supports the ceasefire and hopes, following the severe degradation of the Iranian Regime’s military capabilities and the removal of existential threats, that this time they will engage more seriously with the US 15 points plan."

As host of the peace talks between the US and Iran, Pakistan is beefing up security in the already fortified capital city of Islamabad and the Islamabad Serena Hotel, where the meeting is likely to take place, asking guests to vacate the premises.

Pakistani English daily Dawn reported that a 30-member advance US team has already arrived in Islamabad to review security arrangements. White House press secretary Katherine Leavitt had on Wednesday confirmed that Vice-President J.D. Vance will lead the delegation-level talks with Iran in Islamabad on Saturday.

As of Thursday evening, with Israel’s continued targeting of Lebanon threatening the ceasefire, the arrival schedules of the main discussants were not known.