{"id":77122,"date":"2026-04-23T02:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/22\/islamabad-lockdown-us-iran-talks-pakistan"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:14:31","slug":"like-living-in-a-cage-islamabad-stuck-in-lockdown-as-city-waits-on-us-iran-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=77122","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like living in a cage\u2019: Islamabad stuck in lockdown as city waits on US-Iran talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistani capital in pandemic-style limbo as people work from home, public transport is closed and businesses shut<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/live\/2026\/apr\/22\/iran-war-live-updates-trump-ceasefire-us-hormuz-blockade-israel-lebanon-middle-east\">Middle East crisis \u2013 live updates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Across Islamabad, there is lockdown. The streets of the Pakistani capital have been empty for days, shops have been shuttered and public transport closed down. Officials and office workers have been told to work from home, while labourers have found themselves deprived of work. The only visible figures are those in army and police uniforms lining the roads.<\/p>\n<p>For many, it feels like a return to the pandemic. Yet the cause is not a virus but Islamabad\u2019s status as the venue for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/21\/push-to-bring-us-and-iran-together-for-peace-talks-as-ceasefire-deadline-looms\">US-Iran talks<\/a> that hold the promise of an end to war in the Middle East, with stringent security measures imposed on the city as it awaits the two delegations.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/22\/islamabad-lockdown-us-iran-talks-pakistan\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistani capital in pandemic-style limbo as people work from home, public transport is closed and businesses shutMiddle East crisis \u2013 live updatesAcross Islamabad, there is lockdown. The streets of the Pakistani capital have been empty for days, shops&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[448,60,45,3510,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iran","category-pakistan","category-us-foreign-policy","category-us-israel-war-on-iran","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77122"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77136,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77122\/revisions\/77136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}