Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that his country is ready to “facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks” to end the war in the Middle East. Officials indicated that Islamabad is being pushed as a possible place for the US and Iran to negotiate.
Pakistani sources said that Vice President JD Vance was being suggested as a possible chief negotiator for the US if talks went ahead. Iranian sources say they will not meet with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, or Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who led the nuclear talks with Iran before the war.
Pakistani officials said that the US and Iran could meet in Islamabad this week to talk about ending the war, which started almost a month ago.
Sources say that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, is the most likely person to lead any talks from Iran’s side. Ghalibaf, on the other hand, has called reports of talks between the two sides “fake news.”
The leaders of Pakistan’s military have been trying to take the lead in any peace talks. The White House said that Asim Munir, the head of Pakistan’s army, talked to Donald Trump on Sunday about the war.
Sharif then spoke to the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Monday, where they “agreed on the urgent need for de-escalation, dialogue, and diplomacy,” according to an official readout.
Islamabad has yet to be officially confirmed as the venue for any talks, which neither side has formally agreed to so far. Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt have been touted as other venues, but sources said Tehran’s preference was Islamabad.
“Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honored to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” said Sharif writing on X on Tuesday.
An Iranian diplomatic source said that talks were expected to happen this week, but they also said that Iran had “zero trust” in Washington and would not accept Witkoff and Kushner as negotiators for any talks.
When Trump started bombing Iran, the US and Iran were still talking about Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranian government now sees those talks, which were led by Witkoff and Kushner, as a way for the Trump administration to trick Iran into thinking it wanted a diplomatic solution when it really wanted to attack.
The source said the Iranian side viewed Vance as a more acceptable interlocutor.
Vance is widely viewed as a skeptic of the decision to entangle the US in a Middle East war and has largely kept quiet on the conflict.
“If the negotiations are going to have any outcome, JD Vance should join,” they said. “With Witkoff and Kushner, nothing will come out of it. We have seen that in the past.”
On Monday, Trump gave the strongest indication yet that he would be willing to halt US strikes, claiming that “strong talks” were being held between Iranian officials and Witkoff and Kushner.
“We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement,” Trump told reporters.
The US president has now given a five-day deadline to an ultimatum he gave over the weekend, threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure if they did not reopen the strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping route currently being blockaded by Iran’s military.
Pakistan, Oman, Turkey, and Egypt are some of the countries that have talked to US and Iranian officials to end the fighting, according to diplomatic sources.
Pakistan’s strong army chief has a close relationship with Trump. The US president has called him “my favorite field marshal,” and he has visited Trump in Washington twice.
Pakistan maintains a close relationship with the Gulf countries, which have suffered greatly from Iran’s retaliatory strikes. It just signed a new defense agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan is one of the South Asian countries whose economy is already affected by the war.
The strait of Hormuz is where most of the country’s oil and gas comes from. It has been having problems with fuel shortages and rising prices.