Iran’s foreign minister leaves Pakistan, heads to Russia for more talks

Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi has departed Islamabad for Moscow, the Iranian foreigm ministry said, as mediators hoped to keep the prospect of more Iran-US talks alive.

Araghchi sandwiched a visit to Oman’s Muscat in between trips to the Pakistani capital, and left on Sunday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow the following day, but there was no indication that direct US-Iranian talks would resume.

But in a sign that indirect efforts were ongoing, the Fars news agency reported that Iran had transmitted “written messages” to the Americans via mediator Pakistan that were “about some of the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz”.

Those messages were not, however, part of any negotiations, Fars said.

Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire that the US and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted the fighting that began with joint US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28.

But a permanent settlement remains elusive and the economic shockwaves of the war continue to reverberate around the globe.

Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vast quantities of oil, natural gas and fertiliser from the global market, sending prices soaring. The United States has also imposed a blockade of Iranian ports in response.

There had been hopes for a new round of talks on Saturday, with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner due to visit Islamabad, but Trump later told Fox News he had scrapped the trip, saying there was no point “sitting around talking about nothing”.

On Sunday, Trump told the same channel: “I said, we’re not doing this anymore. We have all the cards. 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”.

Asked earlier whether cancelling the trip meant a return to open hostilities, Trump said: “No, it doesn’t mean that.”

Shuttle diplomacy

On Saturday, Araghchi met Pakistan’s military chief Asim Munir, a key mediator, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, before flying on to Muscat, then returned to Islamabad on Sunday.

He later left for Russia, Iran’s foreign ministry said, where he would speak with “senior officials”.