Pakistan Defence Chief Munir Arrives Tehran; Mediation Enters Decisive Phase
Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces, Field Marshal Asim Munir, arrived in Tehran on Friday to join Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who had met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi twice in two days. Munir was at the centre of the only direct US-Iran negotiations in April, hosting Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad. A Qatari negotiating team also arrived in Tehran on Friday in coordination with the United States.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Pakistan as Washington’s “primary interlocutor” in the talks at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Sweden, telling reporters Pakistan has done an “admirable job”. “Obviously, other countries have interests, because especially Gulf countries that are, you know, in the middle of all this — they have their own situation going. And we talk to all of them. I would just say that the primary country we’ve been working with on all of this, is Pakistan, and that remains the case.” Rubio also said Washington was in “constant communication” with Munir at the highest levels. The Pakistani-Iranian-Qatari coordination is now the broadest multi-party diplomatic push since the April ceasefire.