Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in New York on Thursday, on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (Express Tribune).
What was said
Dar said “dialogue and diplomacy remain essential” to regional peace and stability, and described implementation of the Islamabad Memorandum between the United States and Iran as “the only way forward”.
The two discussed bilateral relations and regional and international developments. The Foreign Office account places Pakistan’s mediatory role at the centre — the Islamabad memorandum and the four-party talks that produced it.
Dar had pressed Araghchi on 19 September, in a telephone call, on the need for uninterrupted energy supplies and the safe passage of ships.
The position Pakistan is holding
Pakistan is doing something unusual and it is worth naming precisely. It is a Muslim-majority state with a land border on Iran, a defence agreement with Saudi Arabia signed in August, and a warming relationship with a US administration currently at war with Iran. It has spent this month asking all three to talk.
That is a real diplomatic position and it has produced a real document. Whether it can hold is a different question, and the answer is not in Pakistan’s hands.
What sits against it
Iran’s president told the General Assembly this week that Tehran “would never surrender to US pressure”. Iran’s security chief has said the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until Iran’s conditions are met. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said negotiations would require “hard work over a period of time” and that military options remain available.
This newspaper reported on 23 September that Iran’s foreign ministry said it had conveyed its conditions for ending the war to Washington through a Qatari mediator in New York — including an end to the naval blockade and the release of Iranian assets.
So there are at present at least two mediation channels running in the same city, one Pakistani and one Qatari, and no public account of how they relate to each other.
The read
A senior Iranian official said this week that Tehran remains open to diplomacy and is reviewing Washington’s response. Oil fell on it — Brent down 92 cents to $102.16.
Markets are pricing a slightly lower chance of escalation. They are not pricing a settlement, and neither should a reader.
[Image: FOREIGNOFFICE/X via The Express Tribune]
