Pakistan’s foreign minister and its army chief are both working the phones on a problem Washington and Tehran have not been able to solve themselves. Two Pakistani government sources told Anadolu Agency on April 29 that Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir are personally involved, and that Munir has spoken to President Donald Trump directly several times in recent days.
The sources described a back channel. “Both sides are actively engaged in back-channel diplomacy, conveying formulas and counter-formulas through Pakistan to reach an agreement,” they said. Islamabad is looking for a “middle way.”
Two issues, one table
The talks are stuck on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program. Iran wants the strait handled first, on the grounds that nuclear questions are complicated and will take long to settle. The United States wants both agreed together.
Iran’s offer, as the sources described it, is to end the conflict and reopen the strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade of Iranian ports, with nuclear talks pushed to a later phase. Trump has shown no interest in that, they said, though he is still discussing the proposal with advisers. “Nothing (in the formulas) is definitive as exchanges are ongoing,” one source added.
Türkiye Today, citing Axios, reported two days earlier that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had passed a three-part Iranian proposal to the U.S. through Pakistani mediators in Islamabad: reopen Hormuz and lift the blockade, set up a permanent or extended ceasefire, and delay the nuclear file. Araghchi then flew to Oman for talks focused on Hormuz and on to Saint Petersburg to see Vladimir Putin. An Axios source said he admitted there was “no consensus inside the Iranian leadership about how to address the U.S. demands.”
The White House confirmed it had received the plan. Spokesperson Olivia Wales gave little else away: “These are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the U.S. will not negotiate through the press.” The report said Trump called senior national security officials to the Situation Room on April 27 to weigh a response. Lifting the blockade would take away the main pressure Washington holds over Iran in future nuclear talks, which is the sticking point for the American side.
How Pakistan got here
Pakistan brokered a two-week ceasefire on April 8, and Trump later extended it. Islamabad then hosted direct talks between Washington and Tehran on April 11-12. They ended without a deal.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts go on “consistently” toward a negotiated settlement of a conflict that has disrupted global energy supplies. The sources were calm about the truce itself. They called the standoff “a nerve-testing game between the two sides” and expected the ceasefire to hold despite the harsh rhetoric.
Araghchi’s recent travels to Pakistan, Oman and Russia, plus phone calls with his Saudi, Egyptian, French and Qatari counterparts, all centered on Hormuz and the nuclear question.
Sources
- Pakistan working silently to find 'new formula' to break US-Iran deadlock on Strait of Hormuz, nuclear program: Sources
- Iran proposes reopening Strait of Hormuz and ending war now (Axios-based report)
