Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a meeting with Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran on Tuesday. The two officials discussed key diplomatic and bilateral issues, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
However, neither side disclosed further details regarding the meeting and Islamabad’s mediation efforts to end the conflict between the US and Iran.
Read more: Iran says Saudi-Pakistan–Turkey deal shows ‘change in perception’ towards US
The agency, quoting a diplomatic source, said that Naqvi will also hold talks with other Iranian officials to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual interest. Naqvi’s visit to Tehran comes a month after Iranian Interior Minister Eskander Momeni travelled to Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterpart.
Pakistan, alongside Qatar, has played a critical role in mediating the crisis and facilitating a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the US in June.
Mohsin Naqvi also met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during his visit, and the two sides discussed closer political, economic, trade, cultural and security ties, according to the Iranian presidency.
The visit comes as Iran continues to insist on conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz amid continued attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on commercial shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu, that Washington must end its military campaign and release Iranian funds held abroad as a condition for the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Rezaei also stressed that wars in Gaza and Lebanon must end as part of the broader effort to bring peace in the region.
Rezaei further demanded that any agreement between Iran and Oman allowing transit through the Strait of Hormuz remain separate from Tehran’s broader closure of the strait.\
“As long as the US does not change its behaviour and accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened,” Rezaei told Cong Peiwu, according to Iranian media.
