OMM Redaksiyası
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met on Thursday in New York, where both leaders are attending the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
According to a statement from Sharif’s office, the meeting was expected to focus on bilateral relations and the regional situation amid the ongoing US-Iran war. The leaders were accompanied by their foreign ministers. No further details were immediately released.
Pakistan’s mediation efforts
Pakistan has played a key role in efforts to mediate between Iran and the United States since Washington and Israel launched military action against Iran on February 28.
Speaking to reporters at the UN a day earlier, Sharif said Pakistan was acting as a “sincere and honest mediator” between Iran, which he described as a neighboring country, and the United States.
Sharif said the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding had been signed by Pezeshkian, US President Donald Trump and himself, but added that subsequent events had become “a bit unpredictable”.
“Pakistan is completely focused. We have not lost hope; we are absolutely determined that we will further make efforts and make progress to de-escalate the situation,” Sharif said.
Ceasefire and renewed strikes
Pakistan helped secure a ceasefire on April 8 and later hosted more than 20 hours of talks between US and Iranian officials in Islamabad.
Following weeks of mediation, Pakistan and Qatar helped broker the Islamabad memorandum, signed on June 18. The agreement established a framework and gave the two sides 60 days to negotiate a longer-term deal aimed at ending the war.
However, the two sides soon resumed retaliatory strikes, and tensions have continued. Iranian and US negotiators also held indirect talks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
