Pakistan calls for constructive US-Iran talks as Vance reaches Islamabad
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar today (11 April) reiterated that Islamabad wants to continue facilitating the parties towards reaching what he described as a “lasting and durable solution to the conflict,” according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry.
Pakistan has said it hopes the United States and Iran will engage constructively in peace talks, as the US delegation arrived in Islamabad, reports Al Jazeera.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar today (11 April) reiterated that Islamabad wants to continue facilitating the parties towards reaching what he described as a "lasting and durable solution to the conflict," according to a statement from the country's foreign ministry.
The Iranian delegation, led by parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived late yesterday.
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Senior US and Iranian leaders were in the Pakistani capital Islamabad for negotiations to end their six-week-old war, although Tehran threw the talks into doubt by saying they could not begin without commitments on Lebanon and sanctions.
The US delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance and including President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, landed in two US Air Force planes at an air base in Islamabad on Saturday morning, where they were received by Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
These will be the highest-level US-Iran talks since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the first official face-to-face negotiations between the two sides since 2015, when they reached a deal on Iran's nuclear programme.
Trump scrapped the nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term in office. That year, Iran's then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - who was killed at the start of the war six weeks ago - banned further direct talks between US and Iranian officials.
