US envoys yesterday headed to Islamabad to start a new round of peace negotiations with Iran, although Iranian state media said Tehran’s envoys had no immediate plans to hold face-to-face talks.
As Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner set off for the Pakistani capital, the White House said they would hold an “in-person conversation” with Iranian representatives.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi on Friday arrived in Islamabad and met Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir, a key figure in the country’s mediation efforts. The pair appeared together in a brief video posted by Tehran’s embassy.
Photo: the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via EPA
Sealing a deal to end the Middle East war remains a difficult proposition, even as urgency mounts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply.
Witkoff and Kushner would be in Pakistan “to engage in talks ... with representatives from the Iranian delegation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“The Iranians reached out, as the president called on them to do, and asked for this in-person conversation,” Leavitt said, adding that the talks would “hopefully move the ball forward towards a deal.”
US Vice President J.D. Vance, who led a first round of negotiations in Islamabad two weeks ago, would not be joining for the time being, but was on “standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary,” Leavitt said.
It remained unclear whether the Iranian side would meet directly with the US envoys.
Araghchi has no plans to meet with the Americans, and Islamabad would serve as a bridge to “convey” Iranian proposals, Iranian state television said.
Araghchi had arrived in Islamabad to discuss “ongoing efforts for regional peace and stability” with Pakistani officials, Islamabad’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, without directly referencing talks with Witkoff and Kushner.
An Iranian spokesman said Araghchi would later visit Oman and Russia to discuss efforts to end the war, which was launched against Iran by Israel and the US on Feb. 28.
the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics in a statement carried by news agency ISNA said that “the enemy is looking for a face-saving way to escape the war quagmire it has become trapped in.”
Since the last round of talks, efforts to bring the two sides back to the table have hit an impasse, with Iran refusing to participate as long as a US naval blockade on its ports remains in place.
Iran has imposed a de facto blockade of its own on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing only a trickle of ships to pass through the vital waterway, throwing global energy markets into turmoil.
Oil prices on Friday slid amid hopes that fresh peace talks would see an end to Tehran’s disruption of trade through the strait.
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