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Who Was There — The Delegations

This page records who had official access to the Islamabad Serena Hotel during the April 11–12, 2026 talks. It exists because the phone claim turns on who was inside a sealed building (Who Could Get Inside).

Read this first. No one named on this page is alleged by this site, or by the sources it quotes, to have carried any of the phones described in The Phone Claim. Being inside the hotel is not evidence of anything. The list shows how small the access circle was.

United States (about 300 people)​

Official reporting put the U.S. team at about 300 members, including subject-matter experts, with more support staff in Washington (Wikipedia: Islamabad Talks). The U.S. delegation stayed at the Serena (The National).

  • Vice President JD Vance, head of delegation. He stopped briefly at the U.S. Embassy before arriving at the Serena (Fox News live updates).
  • Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy.
  • Jared Kushner, presidential adviser without an official title.
  • Andrew Baker, Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor to the Vice President.
  • Michael Vance, Special Advisor to the Vice President for Asian Affairs.
  • U.S. Secret Service and advance teams, who controlled the U.S.-secured area of the hotel (The National).

President Trump did not attend and took part by phone. Some summaries say Witkoff and Kushner stayed home. That describes the late-April second round, which Trump called off. For the April 11–12 round, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and contemporary reporting place both men in Islamabad (Pakistan MoFA; Dawn).

Iran (about 70 people)​

The Iranian delegation arrived late on Friday, April 10. Its flight reportedly turned off its call sign over Pakistani airspace (Al Jazeera). The delegation was lodged at the Marriott and driven to the Serena for sessions.

  • Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of Parliament, head of delegation.
  • Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister.
  • Reza Amiri Moghadam, Ambassador to Pakistan.
  • Ali Akbar Ahmadian, Supreme National Security Council; Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy to the SNSC.
  • Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, president of the National Defence University.
  • Abdolnaser Hemmati, Central Bank Governor.
  • Deputy foreign ministers, members of parliament, and senior IRGC representatives (Wikipedia: Islamabad Talks).

Pakistan (host and mediator)​

  • Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
  • Field Marshal Asim Munir, Chief of Army Staff / Chief of Defence Forces. He is widely reported to have a direct line to President Trump, and his office inside the hotel sat beside the negotiating corridor.
  • Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
  • Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, whose ministry ran the security cordon.
  • Pakistani police, Rangers, army and intelligence personnel, plus vetted hotel staff.

Who was not there​

Israel had no delegation. Pakistan does not recognize Israel or have diplomatic relations with it, and Pakistani passports are marked valid for "all countries of the world except Israel" (Wikipedia: Pakistani passport). That is why the claim stands out: there was no Israeli party at these talks to account for Israeli-registered phones. Accounts conflict over whether Vance spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu by phone during or after the talks, and those accounts are unverified.

Later rounds​

The follow-up talks at Bürgenstock, Switzerland, from June 21, 2026 again involved Vance, Witkoff and Kushner, Ghalibaf and Araghchi, Sharif and Munir, with Qatar's Prime Minister as co-mediator (swissinfo). No one has claimed that any UVU phone appeared there. See the timeline.

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