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Pakistan’s army chief in Tehran to mediate Iran-US talks
Qatari negotiating team reportedly visits Iran
Diplomatic efforts to narrow the gap between Tehran and Washington in a bid to end the US-Israeli war on Iran gained momentum on Friday as Pakistani and Qatari officials reportedly arrived in Iran to help the conclusion of a peace deal between the two countries.
According to AFP, Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir departed Friday for an official visit to Tehran where he will have meetings with Iranian officials.
Meanwhile, a Qatari negotiating team arrived in Tehran on Friday in coordination with the US to try to help secure a deal to end the war with Iran and resolve outstanding issues, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also held another round of talks with Pakistan’s Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi who has been in Tehran since several days ago to discuss proposals exchanged between Tehran and Washington two days after Iran received the latest US message.
‘Good signs’ in talks
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday there had been "some good signs" in the talks, but there could be no solution if Tehran enforced a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz, which it effectively closed to most shipping after the war began on February 28.
"There's some good signs," Rubio said. "I don't want to be overly optimistic ... So, let's see what happens over the next few days."
The war has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with the surge in oil prices stoking fears of rampant inflation. About a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas shipments travelled through the Strait of Hormuz before the war. Also on Thursday, US President Donald Trump claimed the US would eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium. "We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
The US president also railed against Tehran's intentions to charge fees on ships using the strait.
“We want it open, we want it free. We don’t want tolls,” he said. “It’s an international waterway.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei said the US could not force Iran into surrender through its threats, arguing that Washington’s approach had made negotiations increasingly difficult.
‘Unconditional surrender of Iran’
Speaking in an interview with VICE published on YouTube on Thursday night, Baqaei said America’s “deep-rooted arrogance” and insistence on the “unconditional surrender of Iran” had complicated talks.
“The Americans suffer from a kind of inherent arrogance. If you are afflicted with such deep-rooted arrogance, you will not regard your negotiating counterpart as an equal partner deserving dialogue,” he said.
“You cannot expect Iran to make concessions under pressure while its legitimate rights are ignored. You cannot force Iran into surrender,” Baqaei added.
A shaky ceasefire is in place in the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, but there has been no major breakthrough, with a US blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz complicating negotiations.
Since the ceasefire took hold on April 8, Tehran and Washington have held a single round of talks which failed to culminate in a deal. However, the two sides have been exchanging proposals to resolve disagreements and end the war in the region.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Tuesday that Tehran’s latest peace proposal to the US involves ending hostilities on all fronts including Lebanon, the exit of US forces from areas close to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by the US-Israeli war.
Gharibabadi added that Tehran also sought the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen funds and an end to the US marine blockade on the country.