According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, the two countries could resume negotiations as early as next week in Islamabad. <\/p>\n
Both sides are said to be working through mediators on a 14-point memorandum of understanding intended to establish the framework for a month-long negotiating process aimed at ending the conflict.<\/p>\n
The proposed draft covers Iran’s nuclear programme, reducing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, and possible arrangements for transferring Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpiles to another country.<\/p>\n
Should negotiations advance, the initial one-month dialogue period could be extended by mutual agreement. <\/p>\n
However, several major issues remain unresolved, with the scope of potential sanctions relief for Tehran emerging as one of the principal sticking points that could complicate or delay progress.<\/p>\n
The diplomatic maneuvering unfolds against a backdrop of renewed hostilities. Efforts to end the war appeared to stall as the two sides traded fire in the Gulf on Friday, marking the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz since a ceasefire began a month ago. <\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates also came under renewed attack on Friday.<\/p>\n
Compounding Washington’s difficulties is an uncomfortable intelligence assessment. <\/p>\n
A CIA analysis, first reported by The Washington Post, concluded that Iran could withstand a naval blockade of its ports for roughly another four months before suffering severe economic pressure. <\/p>\n
A U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed the finding to Reuters, suggesting that American leverage over Tehran remains limited precisely at the moment both sides are attempting to chart a way out of a conflict that has grown increasingly unpopular with U.S. voters.<\/p>\n
Washington is currently awaiting Tehran’s formal response to a U.S. proposal that would officially end the war, before talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme, can begin in earnest.<\/p>\n
On Friday, speaking to reporters before travelling to a dinner at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, President Trump said, “We’ll hear from them supposedly tonight,” when asked whether Washington had received any response from Tehran. <\/p>\n
When pressed on whether he believed Iran was intentionally delaying the process, Trump said he was uncertain, adding, “We’ll find out soon enough.”<\/p>\n
Earlier the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters in Rome, offered a similar note of cautious expectation. “We should know something today,” he said. “We’re expecting a response from them.”<\/p>\n
For now, the negotiations are caught in the peculiar limbo that defines this conflict: a framework is being written for talks about talks, while guns continue to fire along the world’s most critical oil shipping lane. <\/p>\n
Whether Tehran responds tonight, next week, or not at all may well determine whether Islamabad becomes the venue for a breakthrough or simply another dateline in a longer, grimmer story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, the two countries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35912,36304,32677,34,25752,22706,210,10060,16721,2778,20350,101,69,8358,15539],"class_list":{"0":"post-104934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-ceasefire-tensions","9":"tag-gulf-clashes","10":"tag-highly-enriched-uranium","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-iran-peace-plan","13":"tag-islamabad-talks","14":"tag-marco-rubio","15":"tag-naval-blockade","16":"tag-nuclear-programme","17":"tag-oil-shipping","18":"tag-sanctions-relief","19":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","20":"tag-tehran","21":"tag-uae-attacks","22":"tag-us-iran-talks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116543348399109592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}