Agencies
ISLAMABAD
Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Islamabad again on Sunday as Pakistan’s political and military leadership scrambled to reignite ceasefire negotiations between Tehran and Washington, but President Donald Trump said they could talk by phone instead.
Abbas Araghchi had left Pakistan’s capital late Saturday, creating confusion around an expected second round of talks, but he returned to Islamabad before continuing to Moscow, Iranian state media said.He had been in Oman, which previously mediated talks and is located on the other side of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The White House on Friday said it would dispatch envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad to follow up on historic face-to-face talks earlier this month. But shortly after Araghchi’s departure, Trump said he had called off the mission because of a lack of progress with Iran.
“If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know there is a telephone. We have nice, secure lines,” Trump said in an interview on the Fox News programme The Sunday Briefing.
Trump said he believes the Iran war will come to an end “very soon” and the US will be the winner. “Some people we are dealing with now on Iran are very reasonable; others are not. I hope Iran will be smart,” said the US president.
Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire that the US and Iran agreed to on April 7, which has largely halted the fighting that began with joint US-Israeli strikes on Feb 28.
But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken the global economy.
A standoff remains at the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global waterway, as Iran restricts movement through it and the US enforces a blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows in peacetime, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insists on ending the US blockade before a new round of talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.
Trump told journalists on Saturday, before a security incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that within 10 minutes of his cancelling Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Islamabad, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.