The White House said on Friday that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are headed to Pakistan today to participate in direct peace talks with Iran.
While Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is indeed in Islamabad for talks about regional peace, Iranian semi-official news agency Tasnim has reported that he would not speak with US officials, as did Nournews Agency, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
This uncertainty around the exact status of negotiations is nothing new – and it doesn’t necessarily mean dialogue between the two sides won’t happen, in some form or another.
In late March, there were also conflicting accounts about whether the US and Iran were in talks about ending the fighting.
US President Donald Trump said at the time that Washington had held “productive conversations” with Iran, while Tehran denied any talks with the US. That same day, an Iranian source accepted there had been “outreach” between Washington and Tehran, telling CNN that Iran was willing to listen to “suitable” proposals.
The US later held high-stakes talks with Iran in Pakistan in early April, which ended without an agreement.
Days later, Iranian state media said there were no plans to hold another round of negotiations, despite what it said were “claims by some Pakistani sources or Western media about holding the next round of Islamabad talks.”
