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The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abás Araqchí, left Islamabad this Saturday after a long day of meetings with high-ranking Pakistani officials, without waiting for the arrival of envoys from the United States government, who had announced their trip to the capital of Pakistan for the same day.
Araqchí arrived in Islamabad on Friday night and departed for Oman, the next stop on a diplomatic tour that will also take him to Russia, according to Pakistani diplomatic sources reported to EFE.
From the beginning, Iran had made it clear that the trip did not include any meetings with American representatives. The Iranian spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei was emphatic: "there is no plan for a meeting between Iran and the U.S.".
During his stay, Araqchí met with the Chief of the Defense Forces of Pakistan and the main mediator between both parties, General Asim Munir, as well as with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Chancellor Muhammad Ishaq Dar.
In those meetings, the Iranians conveyed their "complete reservation" regarding the U.S. demands and made it clear that what they are demanding is "the lifting of the blockade and the cessation of U.S. attacks."
The government of President Donald Trump announced that his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Islamabad this Saturday to negotiate with Iran, arguing that they had received an Iranian request to resume in-person negotiations and that they had identified "some advances" from Tehran.
Iranian authorities categorically denied that version and have maintained from the beginning that "there will be no direct meeting with the U.S. delegation."
This episode is set within a deeply stalled negotiation process that began with Operation Epic Fury, launched on February 28, 2026, by the U.S. and Israel against Iranian nuclear and military facilities. The operation executed more than 13,000 airstrikes, destroyed over 5,000 targets, and eliminated the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz on March 4 using mines, drones, and missiles, collapsing naval traffic by 97% and causing the price of Brent crude to soar from $67 to over $126 per barrel.
After 38 days of operations, a ceasefire was agreed upon on April 7, 2026, but the subsequent peace negotiations have made little progress.
The first round of talks in Islamabad, led by Vice President JD Vance along with Witkoff and Kushner, lasted 21 hours without an agreement.
After that failure, Trump ordered a selective naval blockade against Iranian ships and deployed more than 10,000 military personnel, a dozen warships, and three aircraft carriers operating together for the first time since 2003. The blockade costs Iran about 500 million dollars daily.
A second round scheduled for April 21 and 22 was canceled due to Iran's refusal, which conditioned its participation on the lifting of the blockade and the release of frozen assets.
Despite the tense situation, the EFE agency stated that Araqchí's presence in Islamabad is "in any case a step forward in the context of peace negotiations," which remain in a fragile state of pause.
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