Pakistan Minister Naqvi meets top Iranian leaders to revive mediation efforts to end US-Iran conflict
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi held talks with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran to follow up on the stalled peace negotiations, according to media reports.
An interim agreement, which Pakistan had signed as a guarantor, derailed last month as tensions escalated in West Asia with the US and Iran resuming military strikes. Islamabad is actively pushing to revive its mediation efforts to end the conflict.Naqvi departed for the Iranian capital early Tuesday for talks on bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest, according to diplomatic sources cited by Iran’s official news agency, IRNA.
He was received in the airport by his Iranian counterpart, Eskandar Momeni, and later held talks with Araghchi. IRNA posted photographs of Naqvi’s meeting with AraghchiNaqvi and Araghchi are also expected to hold detailed bilateral discussions during this visit, according to a diplomatic source.
In his meeting with the Iranian president, Naqvi described the relationship between the neighbours as “strong, long-standing and unbreakable” and conveyed Islamabad’s “serious determination and will” to pursue the comprehensive development of ties with Tehran, the source said.President Pezeshkian also noted that Iran-Pakistan relations would serve the two countries’ national interests as well as contribute to regional stability and security, the source added.
The Pakistani minister is expected to meet Pezeshkian again.Pakistan’s efforts to revive the talks have so far failed to yield results, especially after Oman took the lead as a mediator to address the key sticking point, Strait of Hormuz, which is crucial for global energy supplies. Iran has said it is close to reaching a separate deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries.
The reported progress in the Oman-Iran dialogue has created an opportunity for Islamabad to move towards reviving the broader process that had emerged from the June agreement, the diplomatic sourcPakistan recently invited Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf to visit Islamabad at the “earliest possible opportunity”. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, however, said on Monday that the visit of the two Iranian leaders would take place “at an appropriate time”.
Naqvi’s visit assumes significance because it is being seen as an effort by Pakistan to keep the mediation channel active while Iranian leaders take their own time to decide on visiting Islamabad for further The Strait of Hormuz, which had witnessed partial relief for a brief period after the signing of the MoU in June, now remains blocked following the collapse of the US-Iran negotiations. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman are negotiating a new arrangement for safe passage through the strait, with the parallel talks focused on a possible new shipping route and mechanisms for its management.
Tehran, however, has maintained that an understanding with Oman would constitute only a technical or first-stage arrangement and would not by itself amount to a full reopening of the waterway. Iran has also maintainthat it will reopen the strait only after the US has redressed all alleged violations of the MoU.