Iranian minister returns to Pakistan despite US canceling talks

Shuttling between regional capitals in a last-ditch diplomatic push, Iran’s foreign minister returned to Islamabad on Sunday as mediators tried to prevent peace contacts between Tehran and the United States from collapsing altogether.

After departing Pakistan, Abbas Araghchi travelled on to Muscat in Oman and is due in Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though there was still no sign that direct negotiations between Iran and the US were about to restart.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a planned visit to Islamabad by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Even so, indirect diplomacy appeared to be continuing. The Fars news agency said Iran had sent “written messages” to Washington through Pakistan dealing with “some of the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz”.

Although a ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on 8 April, has so far remained intact, the conflict’s economic aftershocks are still rippling far beyond the region.

Iran has shut the Strait of Hormuz, choking off huge volumes of oil, natural gas and fertiliser from world markets, driving prices sharply higher and fuelling concern over worsening hunger in parts of the developing world.

There had been hopes that a fresh round of talks could take place on Saturday, with Witkoff and Kushner expected in Islamabad, but Mr Trump later told Fox News he had called off the trip because there was no point “sitting around talking about nothing”.

Donald Trump told the channel today: “I said, we’re not doing this anymore. We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us, you know there is a telephone, we have nice secure lines.”

The president is facing mounting political pressure at home, with petrol prices in the United States rising after Iran’s closure of Hormuz and midterm elections due in November.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his visit to Pakistan had been ‘very fruitful’

‘Very fruitful’

Pressed earlier on whether cancelling the trip signalled a slide back toward open conflict, Mr Trump replied: “No, it doesn’t mean that.”

Later, after police arrested a gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, Mr Trump said he did not believe the episode was linked to Iran, but added that it would not stop him “from winning the war”.

On Saturday, Mr Araghchi held meetings with Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, an important mediator, as well as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, before continuing on to Muscat.

He is then expected to head to Moscow following the Islamabad talks, with Russia’s foreign ministry confirming that President Vladimir Putin would meet him.

Mr Araghchi called his first trip to Pakistan “very fruitful”, while also casting doubt on Washington’s intentions, saying he had “yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy”.

US Vice President JD Vance headed an unsuccessful opening round of talks in Islamabad earlier this month

Hormuz blockade deepens

Calls to bring the war to an end have grown more urgent as the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.

But Iran’s Revolutionary Guards made clear they were not preparing to ease the blockade, which has sent tremors through global energy markets.

“Controlling the Strait of Hormuz and maintaining the shadow of its deterrent effects over America and the White House’s supporters in the region is the definitive strategy of Islamic Iran,” the Guards said on their official Telegram channel.

The United States has responded by imposing a blockade on Iranian ports.

In remarks carried by state media, Iran’s military said continued US “blockading, banditry and piracy” would provoke a response.

Israel strikes Lebanon

On the Lebanese front of the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes against Hezbollah and accused the Iran-backed movement of breaching a ceasefire that was extended this week.

“It must be understood that Hezbollah’s violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire,” Mr Netanyahu said during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.

Hezbollah, for its part, said it would answer Israeli ceasefire violations and what it called the group’s “continued occupation of Lebanese territory”.

Lebanese state media reported that the Israeli military began striking southern Lebanon after issuing an evacuation warning covering seven sites, despite the ceasefire with the Iran-backed group.

“Israeli warplanes launched a strike” in Kfar Tibnit – one of the places named in the warning – the state-run National News Agency said, adding that there were reports of casualties.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israel says it retains the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.