ISLAMABAD/TEHRAN: Pakistan escalated diplomatic efforts on Thursday to hasten US-Iran peace talks as Tehran reviewed Washington’s latest responses.
On the other hand, President Donald Trump warned he would wait only “a few days” for the right answers, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said progress had been made.
Tehran was responding to Washington’s latest proposal, which had “reduced the gaps to some extent” between the two sides, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported early Thursday.
A Pakistani source on condition of anonymity told Reuters: “We’re speaking to all the various groups in Iran to streamline communication and so things pick up pace.
“Trump’s patience running thin is a concern, but we’re working on the pace at which messages are relayed from each side.”
Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, “Believe me, if we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go.” Asked how long he would wait, Trump said, “It could be a few days, but it could go very quickly.”
Earlier, Al Arabiya citing diplomatic sources reported that Washington has submitted the text of a new agreement proposal to Tehran through Islamabad. The report said a Pakistani mediator presently in Tehran was working to narrow gaps between the American and Iranian positions as discussions continue over a possible interim arrangement.
Diplomatic sources said efforts were focused on establishing a framework for an interim agreement that could pave the way for a broader understanding between Washington and Tehran. The report further claimed that Field Marshal Asim Munir’s planned visit to Iran would proceed only if Tehran agrees to the proposed deal.
According to the sources, the Pakistan Army chief is expected to visit Tehran if an interim agreement is reached. There was no immediate official confirmation from Pakistan, Iran or the US regarding the reported proposal or mediation efforts.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who is visiting Iran, held meetings with Iran’s top civil and military leaders in Tehran, Iranian state media reported.
Naqvi met Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief General Ahmad Vahidi and Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni on Thursday. Earlier after arrival he had met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The high-level engagements came amid reports suggesting that efforts were under way to finalise the draft of a potential agreement between Washington and Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said earlier Thursday that Tehran had received US views and was reviewing them, Nour News, which is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported. He said Pakistan, which has played a central role in negotiations, was helping facilitate the exchange of messages between the two sides.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope Thursday that a visit by Pakistanis to Iran will advance diplomacy on ending the war, saying there has been progress. “I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today. So hopefully that’ll advance this further,” Rubio told reporters on Thursday. Rubio renewed criticism of America’s Nato allies for not supporting the US-Israeli war with Iran, as he headed for a meeting of the alliance in Sweden. “There are many countries in Nato that agree with us that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon, that Iran is a threat to the world,” Rubio told reporters in Miami before leaving for the talks among NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden. President Donald Trump “said, fine, I’m going to do something about it,” Rubio said.
“He’s not asking them to commit troops. He’s not asking them to send their fighter jets in. But they refuse to do anything,” he said. “We were very upset about that.”
“I’ve been a strong supporter of Nato my entire career,” said Rubio, a former senator. But he continued: “I know why Nato is good for Europe, but why is Nato good for America? Because it gives us bases in the region that allow us to project power during a contingency in the Middle East or somewhere else. “So when that is the key rationale for why you’re in Nato, and then you have countries like Spain denying us the use of these bases, well then, why are you in Nato? That’s a very fair question,” he said.
Iranian media and regional journalists also reported late Thursday that a final draft agreement between the US and Iran may have been reached through Pakistani mediation, although there was no immediate official confirmation from Washington or Tehran.
The claim was first circulated by market commentary account The Kobeissi Letter on X, citing Iranian state media reports that an announcement could come within hours.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said, hardening Tehran’s stance on one of the main US demands at peace talks.
Israeli officials have told Reuters that Trump has assured Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not consider the war over until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, Tehran ends its support for proxy militias and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated.
“The supreme leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country,” said one of the two Iranian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran’s top officials, the sources said, believe that sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the US and Israel.
However, reports emerged as Iranian officials pushed back against earlier claims that Tehran’s leadership had ordered enriched uranium to remain inside Iran under any future deal.
OSINTdefender, citing a senior Iranian official speaking to Al Jazeera English, reported that earlier Reuters claims regarding a directive against transferring enriched material abroad were “untrue”. The account also referred to separate reports by Fox News quoting White House officials as rejecting the same claim.
Separately, journalist Ali Hashem quoted a senior Iranian official as denying reports that Supreme Leader Mujtaba Khamenei had issued a new order requiring enriched uranium to stay inside Iran.
“There are no new orders,” the official was quoted as saying, describing the reports as “propaganda by the enemies of the deal”.
According to the official, Iran’s position had remained consistent throughout the negotiations, with Tehran proposing that any enriched uranium be downblended domestically rather than transferred abroad. The official added that the issue would be discussed in the next phase of talks.
Oil prices fell and US stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors weighed the likelihood of progress in talks between the United States and Iran to end their war.
Oil prices had been higher earlier in the day, while major US stock indexes were all lower, after Reuters reported Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, a hard stance against one of the main US demands.
However, US crude CLc1 fell $1.91 to settle at $96.35. Brent LCOc1 declined $2.44 to settle at $102.58.
“Oil is down and below $100, and that’s a good thing,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York. But also, Sarhan said, investors have remained upbeat about the outlook for stocks. President Trump vowed on Thursday the US will eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. “We will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
He said he may miss his son Donald Trump Jr’s wedding in the Bahamas, citing “bad timing” due to ongoing efforts to manage the Iran conflict.
He said would “try to make it” to the private ceremony but added: “I have a thing called Iran and other things,” noting the diplomatic crisis could keep him in Washington. He also said he was mindful of political backlash regardless of his decision, saying he would be criticised whether he attended or not during a wartime situation. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin also discussed the Iran conflict with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Putin shared with Xi the idea of transporting and storing Iranian enriched uranium in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Interfax agency as saying.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the Iran crisis can only be resolved through diplomatic channels that take Iranian interests into account. Speaking at a briefing to reporters, Zakharova said that only Iran itself should decide the fate of its uranium reserves.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Thursday to use all available resources to strengthen the country’s military, according to a statement published by his office.
Pezeshkian made the promise during a meeting with the head of Iran’s Army, Maj Gen Amir Hatami, according to the statement. “The government stands with the armed forces with all its capacity and will support strategic plans to enhance defence capabilities, logistical support, equipment modernisation, strengthening operational infrastructure and increasing the country’s deterrence capability,” it said.
Hatami told Pezeshkian the Iranian Army was “fully prepared to provide a decisive, regrettable response” to any new attack on Iran, the president’s office said.
Meanwhile, CNN, citing US intelligence assessments, reported that Iran has already resumed parts of its drone production and is rebuilding key military capabilities much faster than initially estimated by the United States following recent American and Israeli strikes.
According to the report, cited by Reuters, Iran restarted some drone production during the six-week ceasefire that began in early April, raising concerns among US officials over Tehran’s ability to rapidly restore damaged military infrastructure.
The report said US intelligence assessments indicated Iran was replacing missile launchers, production facilities and other military assets at a pace that could undermine claims that the strikes had caused long-term degradation to Tehran’s military-industrial base.
Some intelligence estimates suggest Iran could restore significant parts of its drone attack capability within months, CNN reported, despite earlier assertions by US military officials that much of Iran’s defence industrial network had been destroyed.
Meanwhile, Iran has said it is significantly expanding the area around the Strait of Hormuz over which it claims military control in an effort to assert its sovereignty of the key trade route.
A map published by Iran’s newly-created “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” claims “Iranian armed forces oversight” across more than 22,000 sq km (8,800 sq miles), BBC reported. It extends into the territorial waters of Oman and the UAE. The UAE described Iran’s claims of control as “nothing but fragments of dreams”.
Iran’s new authority added that all transit through the strait “requires coordination with and authorisation from the Persian Gulf Strait Authority”.
The diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, Anwar Gargash, said Iran is “trying to consecrate a new reality born from a clear military defeat, but attempts to control the Strait of Hormuz or encroach on the UAE’s maritime sovereignty are nothing but fragments of dreams”.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ships are guaranteed safe passage through another country’s waters, but Iran has not ratified this convention. However, President Donald Trump Thursday said that the US does not want tolls on the Strait of Hormuz. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also told reporters that a diplomatic deal between the United States and Iran would be unfeasible if Tehran implemented a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, France dismissed the idea of Nato playing a role in an international mission to enable freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, its foreign ministry spokesperson said.
“Our position is clear and constant. It is that the North Atlantic Treaty applies to the North Atlantic. It is neither its purpose, nor in reality the appropriate alliance, for it then to be focused on an issue in the Middle East and on Hormuz,” Pascal Confavreux told reporters in a weekly briefing.
Poland’s Ambassador to Pakistan Maciej Pisarski appreciated Islamabad’s mediation efforts aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East and said Islamabad’s ability to maintain open channels with multiple sides gave it a distinct diplomatic position in endeavours to promote regional peace. “Only a few countries maintain relations with both parties [Iran and the United States] involved in the conflict. This reflects the trust both sides place in Pakistan despite existing concerns,” he told a “Meet the Press” session at the National Press Club, Islamabad, where the envoy spoke about Pakistan-Poland relations, regional stability and broader international security challenges.
