Pakistan military chief, PM head home after Iran war diplomacy blitz

Pakistan’s powerful military chief and prime minister on Saturday concluded separate visits aimed at ending the Iran war, with Field Marshal Asim Munir leaving Tehran and premier Shehbaz Sharif headed home from Turkey.

Munir met Iran’s top leadership and peace negotiators during a three-day visit to Tehran, a Pakistani military statement said.

The visit showed Pakistan’s “unwavering resolve to facilitate a negotiated settlement… and to promote peace, stability, and prosperity”, the military said ahead of expected US-Iran talks in Islamabad in the coming days.

Munir held talks with the country’s president, foreign minister, parliament speaker and the head of Iran’s military central command centre.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi led the Iranian delegation to Islamabad for peace talks with the United States last week, the highest level face-to-face contact between the two countries in decades.

Those talks ended without an agreement, but diplomacy continued thereafter, with Pakistan’s prime minister undertaking a three-country tour to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to push the peace process.

That visit also concluded on Saturday, with Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar departing a diplomacy forum in Antalya, according to statements from both officials.

A second round of talks between the United States and Iran is expected in Islamabad this coming week.

In Tehran, “the Field Marshal underscored the need for dialogue, de-escalation, and peaceful resolution of outstanding issues through sustained diplomatic engagements”, the Pakistani statement said.

Tehran threatened on Saturday to shut the Strait of Hormuz once more if the United States continued its blockade of Iranian ports, hours after Iran announced it had reopened the strategic waterway in the wake of a ceasefire in Lebanon.