Pakistan Continues Efforts to Bridge Gaps Between the U.S. and Iran Despite Face-to-Face Talks Failure

Reuters

Electronic billboard installed alongside a road in Islamabad, Pakistan, 24 April 2026.

Efforts to bridge differences between the United States and Iran have not ceased, according to sources in mediator Pakistan, despite the setback to direct diplomacy after U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled a planned visit by his envoys and told Iran to make contact when it was ready for an agreement.

Prospects for reviving peace efforts have diminished since the U.S. President called off the planned visit on Saturday by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Islamabad, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi travelled twice over the weekend.

Araqchi, who also visited Oman, arrived in Russia on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin, a longstanding ally of Tehran.

With the two sides still appearing far apart on key issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme and passage through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, oil prices resumed their upward trend when trading reopened on Monday. Brent Crude rose by around 2.5 per cent to approximately $108 per barrel.

"If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have nice, secure lines," President Trump told "The Sunday Briefing" on Fox News.

"They ⁠know what has to be in the agreement. It's very simple: They cannot have a nuclear weapon; otherwise, there's no reason to meet," he added.

In a sign that no face-to-face meetings are planned any time soon, streets reopened in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, which had been locked down for a week in anticipation of talks that never took place. The luxury hotel that had been cleared out to serve as a venue was again taking reservations from the public.

Pakistani officials said negotiations were still taking place remotely, but there were no plans to convene a meeting in person until the sides were close enough to sign a memorandum.

"The draft will be negotiated remotely till they reach some consensus," Reuters quoted a Pakistani source familiar with the negotiations.

Although a ceasefire has paused the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that began on 28 February, no agreement has yet been reached on terms to end a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives, driven up oil prices, fuelled inflation and clouded the outlook for global growth.

Iran has largely blocked all shipping, apart from its own vessels, from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began. This month, the United States began blockading Iranian ships, a move Tehran says must cease as a condition for talks.

Following Araqchi’s first weekend visit to Islamabad, a Pakistan official said he had delivered a new Iranian proposal, together with criticism of the U.S. proposal, without providing further details.

The news outlet Axios reported that the Iranian proposal envisaged discussions on ending the conflict and reopening the strait as initial steps, while leaving nuclear negotiations to a later stage.

While Minister Araqchi was meeting Pakistani officials, President Trump, speaking in Florida on Saturday, said he had cancelled the visit of his envoys owing to excessive travel and expense for what he described as an inadequate Iranian offer. “Iran offered a great deal, but not enough,” he said. Iranian officials had already downplayed any suggestion that Araqchi might meet American representatives while in Islamabad.

Fighting has intensified in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes killed 14 people and wounded 37 others in the south on Sunday, according to the health ministry, making it the deadliest day since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was agreed in mid-April.

Iran has stated that it will not hold talks on the wider conflict unless a ceasefire also remains in place in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that fired across the border in support of Tehran.

Israel and Hezbollah have accused one another of violating the truce, which was agreed between Israel and the Lebanese government in Washington and was extended last week.

Source: Reuters



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