The United States has seen some progress towards a deal with Iran but more work is required, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday, while Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the two sides’ differences were deep and significant.
Intensifying diplomacy to end the conflict, Pakistan’s military chief arrived in Tehran yesterday to press on with mediation efforts, and Iranian media reported that Iran’s foreign minister and Pakistan’s interior minister had met there.
Qatar also sent a negotiating team, which is working in co-ordination with the United States, to the Iranian capital to try to resolve the sides’ main differences, six weeks into a fragile ceasefire.
While some gaps have been narrowed, there are still sticking points over Iran’s enriched uranium and control over the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure since the start of the war has triggered a global energy crisis.
“There’s been some progress. I wouldn’t exaggerate it. I wouldn’t diminish it,” Rubio told reporters after a meeting of Nato ministers in Helsingborg in Sweden.
“There’s more work to be done. We’re not there yet. I hope we get there.”
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiations, said negotiations were continuing.
The source added that progress had been made on some issues, but no agreement would be reached until all disputed matters are resolved.
Rubio reiterated comments made on Thursday that Iran’s plans for a tolling system for the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows were ‘unacceptable’.
“We’re dealing with a very difficult group of people, and if it doesn’t change, then the president’s been clear he has other options,” Rubio said.
President Donald Trump said yesterday he was skipping his eldest son’s wedding this weekend because he needs to remain in Washington ‘during this important period of time’, without elaborating.
Two days after presenting the Iranians with the latest US message in negotiations, Pakistani Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi held another round of talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, Tasnim reported.
Pakistan’s army later announced Field Marshal Asim Munir’s arrival in Tehran but gave no further details.
Despite the intensifying mediation efforts, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, was quoted by Irna news agency as saying diplomacy takes time and suggesting that the sides had not reached a point where an agreement was close.
He said nuclear issues were not being discussed and that a conclusion would not be reached if the US sought to delve into details about highly enriched uranium in Iran.
The US and Israel say their war aims are to curb Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear programme, destroy its missile capabilities and make it easier for Iranians to topple their rulers.
But Iran has so far retained its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and its ability to threaten neighbours with missiles, drones and proxy militias.
After US-Israeli air strikes began on February 28, Iran fired at Gulf states that host US military bases and the war reignited conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Thousands have been killed in Iran and Lebanon.
The war has also created turmoil in the global economy, with the surge in oil prices stoking fears of rampant inflation.
Major stock indexes rose yesterday, with the blue-chip Dow hitting a record high, but Treasury yields dipped as investors weighed the likelihood of a near-term deal to end the war.
The US dollar was near its highest level in six weeks amid the uncertainty over peace talks, while oil prices climbed.
Trump said the US would eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium – which Washington believes is destined for a nuclear weapon.
Two senior Iranian sources told Reuters before Trump’s comments that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had issued a directive that the uranium should not be sent abroad.
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