Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad, but Tehran has not yet committed to further talks with the US delegation.
United States President Donald Trump is sending his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan after Iran’s foreign minister visited the country, raising hopes for new talks on ending the US-Israel war on Iran amid a fragile ceasefire and rising tensions over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Friday that the U.S. envoy would sit down with Abbas Araghchi and expressed hope that the parties would “move the ball forward on a deal,” but it was unclear whether the Iranian delegation has agreed to negotiate.
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Writing on Friday, Iran’s top diplomat said he was on a “timely visit to Islamabad, Muscat and Moscow” to coordinate on “bilateral matters”, and made no specific mention of any intention to meet with US negotiators.
Trump expressed optimism over a possible deal, telling news agency Reuters that Iran was “making an offer” aimed at meeting US demands, including ending its nuclear program.
Earlier, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran had a chance to make a “good deal”. “Iran knows they still have an open window to choose wisely at the negotiating table,” he said. He said they simply have to “give up nuclear weapons in meaningful and verifiable ways”.
But two Pakistani government sources told Reuters the Iranian foreign minister’s visit would be brief, focusing on Iran’s proposals for talks with the US, which mediator Pakistan would then convey to Washington.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said that a “senior official” had made it “clear” to him that there would be no US-Iran talks in Pakistan.
“All these regional partners have their own ideas on how to resolve this impasse, but for now, Iran has said it will not meet for a new round of talks,” he said.
Top negotiators absent from last round
Reports of Araghchi’s visit in Iranian state media made no mention of Speaker of Iran’s Parliament Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, who headed his delegation to talks with the US earlier this month that ended without any breakthrough.
According to Reuters, the Iranian parliament’s media office denied reports that Ghalibaf had resigned as head of Iran’s negotiating team, and said no new round of talks was scheduled yet.
US Vice President JD Vance also participated in the first round of talks but is not traveling to Pakistan on this occasion, though Leavitt said he remained “deeply involved” and is on “standby” to get involved if needed.
He said Trump decided to send Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan to listen to the Iranians. “We have certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last few days,” he said, without giving any further details.
Reporting from Washington, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said it appeared an “orderly process” was in place, describing it as “an initial exploratory phase” that could lead to “high-level engagement if talks deepen”.
A new round of talks was expected to begin on Tuesday, but that did not happen, with Iran saying it was not yet ready to participate.
Trump on Tuesday extended the unilateral ceasefire by two weeks to give negotiators more time to reconvene as the US continued its blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran says it will not stop blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime trade barrier, until Trump lifts its blockade. On Friday, the US applied more pressure on Tehran by freezing $344m of cryptocurrency assets to “systematically impair Tehran’s ability to generate, move and repatriate wealth”.
