Iran’s foreign minister returns to Pakistan after Trump cancels envoys’ trip for talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad again on Sunday, just hours after US President Donald Trump told his special envoys not to go to Pakistan for ceasefire talks. Araghchi had left Pakistan’s capital on Saturday night after meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir. Pakistan has been trying to get US and Iranian officials back to the negotiating table after Trump last week announced that a two-week ceasefire would be extended indefinitely, citing Islamabad’s request for more diplomatic outreach. Araghchi then flew to Muscat for talks with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, and he was expected to travel to Moscow after his return trip to Pakistan, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. IRNA described the diplomatic trip as one aimed at “strengthening coordination with partner countries”. Araghchi has also had phone calls with his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts on Iran’s ceasefire with the United States. Amid the flurry of diplomacy, Iranian PresidentMasoud Pezeshkian said Iran would “not negotiate under threat and blockade”. Hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough in the US-Israeli war with Iran faded even more on Saturday when Trump ordered his negotiating team not to travel to Pakistan for talks on ending the eight-week war that has upended the global economy. Trump told his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to stay put and avoid wasting more time until Tehran stepped up. Vice-President J.D. Vance, who presided over the first round of talks earlier this month, remains on “standby”. “Too much time wasted on travelling, too much work!” Trump said on social media. In a call to Fox News, he expanded on his decision. “I’ve told my people a little while ago, they were getting ready to leave, and I said ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there’,” he recounted, saying the leverage was all on the US side. “We have all the cards,” Trump said. “They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.” Trump later claimed that as soon as Tehran heard the US was backing away, it produced a better offer. “Within 10 minutes, we got a new paper,” he said, without offering additional details. Iran did not immediately acknowledge that any fresh offer was made. Saturday’s US turnaround followed a relatively upbeat assessment a day earlier by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt when she said the administration was seeing “progress” from the Iranian side on possible peace negotiations and that Witkoff and Kushner would head to Islamabad to “hear the Iranians out”. “The Iranians want to talk,” she added. “They want to talk in person.” Except they apparently did not. Araghchi and his ministry have flatly denied that Tehran requested direct or face-to-face talks with the US. As both sides play to the home crowd, analysts have said that Araghchi’s denial appears to be a tactical move to maintain domestic leverage. By framing his weekend meetings with Pakistan and other regional players as “bilateral consultations”, Araghchi has avoided appearing to surrender to US pressure while still ensuring that any actual Iranian offer was passed on to the Americans by Pakistan. “Very fruitful visit to Pakistan,” Araghchi said in a post on X. “Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy.” Speaking to reporters on Saturday afternoon, Trump said that the meeting with the Iranians was not due to happen until Tuesday, which seemed like a waste, but that the cancellation did not necessarily mean he was going to resume the war. Trump added that a counter offer Araghchi gave the Pakistanis on Saturday afternoon was not sufficient. “They offered a lot but not enough,” he said. Amid the threats and face-saving moves by both sides in recent days was a contest over who could take the most pain. Iran, pounded for weeks by air strikes from US and Israeli fighter jets after the allies launched the war in late February, has secured strong leverage by blocking the strategic Strait of Hormuz and holding the global economy hostage. Tehran was betting that rising oil prices and the war’s unpopularity in the US as midterm elections loom would force Washington to retreat. Trump, after realising that his bombing campaign and maximalist threats were not bringing about the capitulation he had hoped for, has countered by stifling Iranian trade with a blockade. Washington has wagered that Iran’s isolation from the global economy, its inability to pay the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the lack of basic necessities for its people would force Iran to capitulate. The US blockade has seen many Iran-linked vessels turn around without passing through the strait. But some were making the crossing, ship-tracking firms report, potentially extending Iran’s ability to weather the restrictions. All the while, global economic damage was becoming more entrenched as oil wells have been turned off, affecting supply. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, swung between US$103 and US$107 a barrel on Friday – nearly 50 per cent higher than when the war began. Trump reiterated his frustration on Saturday over the lack of an Iranian political structure after US and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the war’s opening hours. Meanwhile Khamenei’s successor, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen and may be suffering from severe injuries. “There is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership’,” Trump said. “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them.” This was particularly difficult for a US president who sees himself as the ultimate deal maker able to exact terms in the room, often without much preparation other than his “gut” and his perceived personal charisma. “That is his style, and that’s why Iran has been so confusing,” said Irina Tsukerman, president of Scarab Rising, a security consultancy. The administration thought it could deal with the ayatollah, she said, but now finds it might be some top Revolutionary Guard group he cannot reach or perhaps a secret circle of ayatollah leaders or maybe a completely different power centre. “For Trump, not being able to identify a single coherent head of state that he can confront or deal with, this has been a major, major question hanging over him,” she said. Iran has kept its stranglehold on traffic through the strait, attacking three ships last week, while Trump ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines. Several countries have offered to help clear mines from the strait – including France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan and, on Saturday, Turkey. But most were only willing to help once hostilities end, angering Trump. Since the start of the war on February 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and over 2,490 people in Lebanon, according to authorities, after fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started. Another 23 were killed in Israel, more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, 15 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service personnel throughout the region. With trust lacking, decades of bad blood simmering and Trump’s deal-making lagging, there was little evidence of a compromise. “Negotiations between the US and Iran are stuck,” said Andrew Bishop, senior partner with Signum Global Advisors, a consultancy. “Iran will only agree to resume talks if or once the US agrees to ease its blockade. The US will only agree to ease its blockade if or once Iran agrees to issue a formal response to the US’ nuclear demands.” Pressure, however, has been building. The US pain tolerance was lower than Iran’s, Bishop said. China could also put more pressure on Washington by signalling an end to its rare-earths truce if the stalemate drags on too long, he added. And while some countries may come out of the war better than others, no one wins short term, and it was a question of who hurts less. “The current economic situation is bad for everyone,” Tsukerman said. “It still hurts in the short term, especially if you have problems internally.”

Iran’s foreign minister returns to Pakistan after Trump cancels envoys’ trip for talks

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tehran pursues urgent regional coordination as US president orders his negotiators to stay home

Tehran pursues urgent regional coordination as US president orders his negotiators to stay home