ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, Iranian state media reported on Saturday, as Islamabad steps up diplomatic efforts to help mediate the ongoing conflict between the United States (US) and Iran.
Pakistan has been a key mediator since the beginning of the war in late February, following joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with Islamabad maintaining close coordination with Tehran and Washington. Munir arrived in Tehran on Friday as part of Islamabad’s renewed efforts to revive stalled US-Iran talks and prevent further escalation.
“In this meeting, which lasted until late at night, the two sides exchanged views on the latest diplomatic efforts and initiatives to prevent the escalation of tensions and end the war imposed by the US,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
However, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei cautioned that the visit did not mean “we have reached a turning point or a decisive situation” with “deep and extensive” disagreements remaining, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. Baqaei said a delegation from Qatar had also held talks with the Iranian foreign minister on Friday.
Weeks of negotiations since an April 8 ceasefire — including historic face-to-face talks hosted by Islamabad — have still not produced a permanent resolution or restored full access to the strait, choking vast quantities of global oil supply.
US President Donald Trump has described the stop-start negotiations this week as teetering on the “borderline” between renewed attacks and a deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and led to competing blockades around the strategic Strait of Hormuz that have roiled the global economy.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran was engaged in the diplomatic process despite “repeated betrayals of diplomacy and military aggression against Iran, along with contradictory positions and repeated excessive demands” by the United States, according to his ministry.
US media outlets Axios and CBS News, citing unnamed sources, reported the White House was considering strikes on Iran, although both added a final decision had not been made yet.
US officials have repeatedly raised the prospect of renewed action against Iran if a deal were not reached, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying on the sidelines of a NATO conference in Sweden that there had been “some progress” toward a peaceful resolution but “things were not there yet.”
