Iran talks see momentum as Pakistani officials visit Tehran
Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, has reportedly departed for the Iranian capital, while Doha dispatched a diplomatic team.
WASHINGTON — A flurry of diplomatic activity, including visits by Pakistani and Qatari officials to Tehran on Friday, is signaling possible momentum in efforts to reach a deal between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, landed in the Iranian capital, where the country’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, arrived earlier this week. For the second time in two days, Naqvi and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Friday to discuss proposals to end the war, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. On Saturday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will begin a four-day visit to China, a key diplomatic ally and trading partner of Iran.
Pakistan has served as the primary mediator between the two sides, hosting one round of talks in mid-April. Qatar, which has previously brokered talks between Washington and Tehran, also dispatched a negotiating team to Tehran on Friday, a source familiar with the matter told Al-Monitor.
The United States and Iran have exchanged multiple proposals to end the war, but major sticking points remain, including Tehran’s insistence on maintaining its nuclear program and control over the Strait of Hormuz. It’s also seeking the lifting of all US sanctions, compensation for war damage and the unfreezing of Iranian assets held abroad.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Iranian official told Al-Monitor that “some new ideas and texts have been exchanged” between the two sides.
“It can be only a basis for talks between Iran and the US. It does not mean a deal which can be announced,” the official said.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said he called off planned strikes on Iran at the request of Gulf allies because “serious negotiations” were underway over a potential deal. On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been “a little bit of movement” in the talks with Iran, but that he did not want to overstate the progress. Rubio described Iranian efforts to create a toll system in the Strait of Hormuz as “not acceptable” and said the United States and its partners “have a plan B” if the waterway remains closed.
“We have to start thinking about what we do if a few weeks from now, Iran decides we don't care, we're going to keep the straits closed,” Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden.
The New York Times reports that Iran and Oman have discussed a joint system to charge vessels fees for passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Oman was not among the five Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that wrote to the International Maritime Authority, a global shipping watchdog, this week rejecting Iran’s plan for a “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” to oversee transit through the strait.
In a possible sign of progress, Iran appears to be allowing greater passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint through which 20% of the world’s oil and LNG passed before the war. In a statement carried by its official Sepah News outlet, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Thursday that 31 vessels, including oil tankers and container ships, had transited the strait over the past 24 hours.
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.
