Iranian FM Araghchi to visit Pakistan in step towards US talks resumption

Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, is expected to fly into Pakistan’s capital on Friday night with a small delegation, in what officials said was a key step towards the resumption of direct talks with the United States aimed at ending their war.

Senior government officials in Islamabad confirmed the development to Al Jazeera, soon after a series of phone calls between Araghchi and Pakistani leaders on Friday.
For the moment, the Iranian state news agency IRNA said Araghchi’s visit to Pakistan was bilateral in nature — to speak with Pakistani officials, rather than for talks right away with the US. Araghchi, IRNA said, would travel to Moscow and Muscat after Islamabad.

Still, one Pakistani official said there was now a “high likelihood of a breakthrough” between the US and Iran, after days of escalating brinkmanship and rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

A US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance was expected to arrive in Islamabad at the start of the week for talks, but Iran then said it was not prepared to return for talks, citing the naval blockade of its ports. Donald Trump enforced the blockade on April 13, two days after the first round of negotiations between the US and Iran in Islamabad ended inconclusively.

Since then, the prospects of further talks have been in limbo – with Iran insisting that the US needed to lift the blockade before it would return. Trump has so far refused to lift the blockade – even after Araghchi said that Iran would reopen the strait, which it had effectively blocked for most ships since early March.