Pakistan offers to mediate stalled U.S.–Iran nuclear talks this week
- Pakistan spent the weekend trying to revive U.S.-Iran talks after Donald Trump canceled envoy travel to Islamabad and Tehran refused direct meetings there. - Iran routed its demands through Pakistani officials, with Abbas Araghchi shuttling through Islamabad and Muscat as disputes over enrichment and shipping stayed unresolved. - The impasse follows April talks in Islamabad and keeps Strait of Hormuz risks alive. (politico.com)
Pakistan is still trying to broker U.S.-Iran talks after a planned second round in Islamabad fell apart over the weekend. (politico.com) (cnbc.com) President Donald Trump canceled a trip by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan, saying Iran’s latest offer was improved but still insufficient. Iran then said no direct U.S.-Iran meeting was planned in Islamabad. (cnbc.com) (usnews.com) Instead, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Pakistani officials and said Tehran’s position would be passed along by Islamabad. Pakistan’s foreign ministry and local media said Araghchi also traveled onward to Muscat and then Moscow. (dawn.com) (politico.com) At the center of the dispute is Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Gulf that carries about a fifth of global oil flows in normal times. Recent proposals have tried to separate the shipping fight from the harder nuclear terms. (usnews.com) (politico.com) Reuters reported on April 16 that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had scaled back from a full settlement and were instead discussing a temporary memorandum to prevent a return to war. The same report said major gaps remained over Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and how long any halt in enrichment would last. (usnews.com) Another sticking point is access to shipping. Pakistani and regional officials told reporters that Iran wants the United States to end its blockade on Iranian ports before a new negotiating round begins. (politico.com) That leaves Pakistan in the role of messenger as much as mediator. Iranian officials have publicly said their observations would be conveyed to Washington through Pakistan rather than in face-to-face talks. (dawn.com) (usnews.com) Islamabad has been in this role since early April, when Pakistan helped broker a temporary ceasefire and then hosted a first round of U.S.-Iran talks on April 11 and 12. Those talks ended without a deal, but they set up the current effort to chase a narrower interim arrangement. (aljazeera.com) (usnews.com) For now, the immediate question is not whether Pakistan can deliver a final accord, but whether it can get both sides back into the same process. Until that happens, the nuclear file and the Strait of Hormuz remain tied to the same stalled diplomacy. (politico.com) (cnbc.com)
