Pakistan says it’s ready to host US-Iran talks after regional powers meet

Pakistan says it is ready to host “meaningful” talks to end the United States-Israeli war on Iran after diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkiye gathered in Islamabad in a bid to de-escalate the conflict.

The two-day talks in the Pakistani capital began on Sunday and are being led by Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, who said after the meeting that they had covered possible ways to bring an early and permanent end to the war in the ⁠region as well as potential US-Iran talks in Islamabad.

“The foreign ministers advocated dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable pathway to prevent conflicts and to promote regional peace and harmony,” he said in a video statement on X.

“Pakistan will be honoured to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in coming days, for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the ongoing conflict,” Dar said.

It was not immediately clear if the US and Iran had agreed to attend any talks.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also said in a statement on Sunday that the ministers had discussed ways to enhance cooperation amid the ongoing conflict.

“The ministers also exchanged assessments on the dire economic repercussions of the military escalation in the region, its effects on international navigation, supply chains, and food security, as well as its implications for energy security in light of rising oil and energy prices,” it read.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that he had a “detailed telephone conversation with my brother President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran earlier today, lasting over one hour”, as part of preparations for the Islamabad talks.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said Pakistan has been acting as “a key interlocutor” between the US and Iran, passing messages between the two sides as part of the mediation efforts.

“The gathering in Islamabad, what many people say, is the beginning of a critical process that includes the only viable option: diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.

“A difficult process, given the escalation, so all eyes will be on Islamabad – what consensus can be reached here, and whether that will be acceptable to the US, whether it is looking for a way out of this war or whether it is trying to buy time,” he added.

Pezeshkian hailed Islamabad’s efforts and “thanked Pakistan for its mediation efforts to stop the aggression against the Islamic Republic”, according to his office.

The pair have spoken previously in recent weeks about the conflict and Pakistan’s commitment to bringing it to an end.

Islamabad has longstanding links with Tehran and close contacts in the Gulf, while Sharif and Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, have struck up a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said earlier on Friday that he expected a direct US-Iran meeting in Pakistan “very soon”, without revealing his source.

The risk of an expanded Iran war grew on Saturday as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels launched their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict, after the first of the two contingents of the thousands of additional US forces dispatched to the Middle East arrived on Friday on an amphibious assault ship.