Iran Foreign Minister Back In Pakistan After Concluding Talks In Oman. Are Islamabad Talks Still On?

Islamabad: Day after Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left the Pakistani capital, signalling another failure in the peace negotiations between Tehran and Washington, the top diplomat from the Middle Eastern country returned the next day, from Muscat.

Araghchi was spotted at the Nur Khan Airbase near the Pakistani capital, reports mentioned. It has also been reported that some of his delegation members, who had earlier flown back to Iran for consultations, would be rejoining him in Islamabad.

Araghchi had earlier met Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday, and held talks on bilateral ties and regional developments. The Foreign Minister had earlier said on X that his visits to Islamabad, Muscat and Moscow were part of a broader diplomatic push to coordinate with partner countries.

Trump Cancels Envoys' Meetings

Araghchi's return to Islamabad comes after US president Donald Trump dealt a heavy blow to the peace talks between US and Iran, when he announced that he has cancelled the planned trip by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan.

"I've told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, 'Nope, you're not making an 18 hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you're not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing’," Trump was quoted as saying by Fox News.

What Happened In Islamabad On Saturday

Pakistan's top civilian and military leadership met at the residence of the Pakistani Prime Minister for a meeting with the Iranian delegation on Saturday that lasted approximately two hours.

However, Tehran was “not ready to meet the US delegation.” The departure of Araghchi and Trump's subsequent cancellation of talks concealed Islamabad's hopes of facilitating the second round of dialogue between the two warring sides, which the world was keenly waiting for.

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