Iran is continuously exchanging messages with Pakistan amid Islamabad’s efforts to mediate a permanent end to the US-Israeli aggression, according to a report.
Speaking to the Islamabad correspondent of Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Tuesday, a Pakistani source said his country is determined to continue mediation efforts between Iran and the US despite a round of failed negotiations in Islamabad over the weekend.
However, the source said there is no information suggesting that a new round of talks would take place between Iran and the US either in Islamabad or in any other place in the near future.
Another diplomatic source told IRNA’s Pakistan correspondent that a new round of negotiations between Iran and the US is possible and can be held in Islamabad or any other location, although he insisted that no official decision has been taken in this regard.
IRNA also quoted a source close to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry as saying that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is planned to travel to Saudi Arabia and Turkey for official visits at the weekend, suggesting that any new round of Iran-US talks would take place before those trips.
The source said, however, that such talks could take place in Ankara, Geneva, or Islamabad.
IRNA’s report came after the Associated Press quoted unnamed Pakistani officials as saying the first round of Iran-US talks was part of an ongoing diplomatic process rather than a one-off effort.
The Associated Press quoted two US officials as saying discussions were still underway about a new round of talks possibly on April 16 and potentially in Islamabad or Geneva, adding that a diplomat from one of the mediating countries, which also include Turkey and Egypt, confirmed that Tehran and Washington had agreed to it.
Iran and the United States agreed to enter talks on April 7 after Pakistani authorities said the US had accepted Iran’s general conditions as a baseline for talks.
The negotiations came after Islamabad mediated a ceasefire that allowed a halt to 40 days of US-Israeli aggression on Iran, a war that prompted massive, decisive Iranian retaliation against US bases in the region and areas in the Israeli-occupied territories.
