Pakistan races to save negotiations between US and Iran after Trump keeps envoys home
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s top political and military leadership are scrambling to reignite talks between the United States and Iran after President Donald Trump told his envoys not to travel to Islamabad for negotiations this weekend, two Pakistani officials said Sunday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
After mounting tensions torpedoed a second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran, which was scheduled to take place over the weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spent most of Sunday in Oman, which borders the Strait of Hormuz and has previously hosted several rounds of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.
He is expected to return to Islamabad on Sunday evening before departing for Moscow, Iranian state media reported.
Iranian officials have questioned how they can trust the U.S. after its forces started blockading Iranian ports in response to Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. and Israel have attacked Iran during previous rounds of negotiations.
Strait of Hormuz at center of discussions in Oman
Pakistan-led mediators are working to bridge significant gaps between the U.S. and Iran, according to a regional official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said Iran still insists on ending the U.S. blockade on its ports before launching a new round of talks with the Trump administration.
He added that Araghchi’s talks in Muscat have focused on the issues surrounding Strait of Hormuz, one of the main challenges to negotiations.
He said Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels transiting through the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows in peacetime.
Oman’s response wasn’t immediately clear.
Amidst military threats, Iran insists on indirect negotiations
Last week, Trump announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran. It has paused most fighting, but the economic fallout is growing two months into the war as global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies are disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Both sides have continued to make military threats. Iran’s joint military command on Saturday warned that “if the U.S. continues its aggressive military actions, including naval blockades, banditry, and piracy” it will face a “strong response.”
Even before Saturday’s developments, Iran’s foreign ministry said any talks would be indirect and that Pakistani officials would act as go-betweens.
Trump told journalists early Saturday, before a security incident at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, that within 10 minutes of him cancelling Witkoff and son-in-law Kushner’s trip to Islamabad, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.
He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.”
“If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Trump said on social media Saturday.
Syed Mohammad Ali, an independent political analyst in Pakistan, cautioned against placing too much emphasis on temporary setbacks. He said ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran cannot be eased overnight and that the negotiation process “requires wisdom and patience from both sides.”
“This is a sensitive and complicated process, and there will be ups and downs, which are normal in such matters. But the good thing is that the ceasefire is holding, and both sides have a desire to end the conflict in a way that does not backfire at home,” Ali said.
Standoff in Hormuz continues
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is nearly 50% higher than when the war began because of Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran attacked three ships last week, while the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.
Also Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s international airport for the first time since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28.
A growing toll even as ceasefires hold
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,496 people in Lebanon, where the Israel-Hezbollah fighting resumed two days after the Iran war started. Also, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
Another ceasefire — between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant Hezbollah group — was shaken on Saturday as each side fired at the other and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.”
Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.
But Israel struck southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least six people it said were Hezbollah militants, and several rockets and drones were launched at Israel from Lebanon. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel.