The president of the United States, , will send his special envoy for peacekeeping missions, , and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan to participate in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Although at first, according to Iranian state media, direct contact between the antagonists was ruled out, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed this Friday that Trump’s emissaries “will leave again for Pakistan tomorrow.” [por este sábado] in the morning to engage in direct talks with representatives of the Iranian delegation.” Before the confirmation from the White House, Pakistani mediators were the first to take for granted the long-awaited second round of dialogue between the United States and Iran.
Vice President JD Vance, who attended, does not plan to attend at the moment, given that the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, the influential Mohamed Baqer Qalibaf, will not participate either, according to CNN and Reuters. White House officials view Qalibaf as the head of the Iranian delegation and Vance’s counterpart.
However, the vice president will remain on standby to travel to Islamabad if the talks progress; In addition, members of his team will be in Pakistan and attend the negotiations. Kushner and Witkoff have been working with Iranian officials for months on a possible agreement on Tehran’s nuclear material, but, despite a marathon day of dialogue that lasted 21 hours. Vance explained that the failure was due to Tehran’s failure to accept Washington’s red lines and added, as a warning, that his Administration had conveyed to Tehran a final offer.
Tour
This Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister began a tour of Pakistan, Oman and Russia to analyze with his counterparts the current situation of the war being waged against the United States and Israel, under a precarious ceasefire and with a Strait of Hormuz subject to the double blockade of Iran and the United States.
“The objective of these trips is to coordinate closely with our partners on bilateral issues and to consult on the regional situation,” Araghchi announced on social networks. Iran considers its neighbors a “priority issue,” he stressed in his message.
Araghchi will visit first Islamabad and then Muscat, the capital of Oman, to discuss in particular the mediation efforts that both countries have been developing for months on the conflict. Although on paper the visit to Pakistan is bilateral, an official source from the country told Al Jazeera the “high probability” that the United States and Iran will make progress, after days of escalation, ship captures and threats.
Oman acted as an intermediary in the nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, which were interrupted by the unilateral war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28. Pakistan hosted the aforementioned high-level meeting, chaired by Vance and Qalibaf, to end the war.
Afterwards, Araghchi will travel to Moscow to discuss the situation with his great international ally and, in particular, with his top diplomat, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has spoken by phone with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar. In the call, Lavrov praised Islamabad’s role as a mediator and confirmed Moscow’s willingness to support the process, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“The trip, which begins tonight, aims to hold bilateral consultations, debate and dialogue on regional current affairs, as well as the most recent situation of the war imposed by the United States and the Zionist regime. [Israel] against Iran,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry broadcast on state radio and television IRIB had previously explained.
and neither Minister Araghchi nor his team have hinted at the possibility of any type of conversation with a third country during the visit to Islamabad. In the absence of confirmation of the meeting by Tehran, the trip by Kushner and Witkoff seems to provide the necessary impetus to carry out the long-awaited second round of contacts, despite running parallel to the US military reinforcement.
Aircraft carrier
Washington has confirmed the arrival in the region of its third aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, and Israel awaits his “green light” to “resume the war against Iran,” return the country to “the Stone Age” and kill the new supreme leader, Mojataba Khamenei (as he did with his father, Ali, when he began the hand-to-hand conflict with the United States, on February 28). These are the words that his Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, used the day before.
The future of the truce is not only being decided in Hormuz. Also in Lebanon, where a ceasefire prevails, extended this Thursday for another three weeks, but whose feet are made of clay.
A Hezbollah deputy, Ali Fayad, reacted this Friday to the extension of the ceasefire, agreed to by the Governments of Israel and Lebanon. “It makes no sense” in light of the “continuous attacks” by the Israeli army, he said.
The Lebanese authorities count 220 violations in the first three days by Israel, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, boasted this Friday of the “complete freedom of action” with which his army operates there. It is the euphemism for carte blanche to bomb in the south and continue demolishing all the houses in the border villages, even paying private contractors who have excavators and bulldozers.
“We maintain full freedom of action against any threat, including emerging ones. We attacked yesterday and we attacked today,” he said in a video speech, in which he described an “excellent conversation” with Trump.
The day before, Hezbollah launched its first projectiles against Israel, for the first time since it began on the 16th, increasing fear about the continuity of the ceasefire. The agreement gives Israel the broad right to “take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.”
This Friday, the Israeli army ordered the eviction of the residents of Deir Aames, a town in southern Lebanon but outside the “security zone” it is establishing, and which prevents the return of the population it has expelled. He claimed that Hezbollah had used him to launch attacks. Then he bombed there.
