Iran | Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Friday said the United States never sought the use of Pakistani airspace or land routes for any action against Iran, while reaffirming that Pakistan would continue playing its role as a facilitator and mediator for peace and de-escalation in the region.

Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir arrived in Tehran on Friday evening as part of ongoing mediation efforts aimed at bringing the Iran-US war to a conclusion. On arrival, the army chief was “received and warmly welcomed” by Iran’s Minister for Interior Eskandar Momeni, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The military’s media wing added that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was also present at the reception. The CDF will discuss US-Iran talks, regional peace and other important issues during the visit, the sources said. He will also meet senior Iranian officials. Earlier in the day, security sources said the army chief had departed for Iran. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented about CDF Munir’s visit to Tehran, saying that the US was in “constant communication with him [and] the highest levels of our government are constantly talking to him”. He also praised Pakistan for doing an “admirable job” trying to mediate a peace deal between Was...

Trump says Iran talks 'on borderline'

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has arrived in Iran on what sources describe as a mission linked to efforts aimed at reviving Iran-US talks, according to reports.

Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples who signed up to a state-sponsored scheme declaring their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the war against the US and Israel. The ceremonies conducted late on Monday involved hundreds of couples in several major squares in the capital, including more than 100 in the vast Imam Hossein square in central Tehran, according to reports in Iranian media. They were broadcast on state TV in a bid to boost wartime morale, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening new military action against Iran amid a shaky ceasefire which halted the fighting that began on February 28. Those involved had signed up, according to Iranian media, for the so-called “self-sacrifice” scheme (janfada in Persian) where people pledged to put their lives on the line in the war by, for example, forming human chains outside power stations. Iranian authorities say millions of people, including top figures such as Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Pres...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday underscored the historic, economic, and strategic significance of Gulf Cooperation Council member states and Iran in Pakistan’s foreign policy.

Iran’s top security body announced on Monday the formation of a new body to manage the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed and wants to charge ships to traverse. On its official X account, the Supreme National Security Council shared a post for the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) saying it would provide “real-time updates on the #Hormuz_Strait operations and latest developments”. The account of the Revolutionary Guards’ navy shared the same post. It was not immediately clear what the new body would do but earlier this month Iranian English-speaking broadcaster Press TV said it constituted a “system to exercise sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz” and that ships passing through the strait were sent “regulations” from the email info@pgsa.ir. Iran has largely blocked shipping through the vital strait since the outbreak of war with the United States and Israel on February 28. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 8. Iran’s grip over the waterway has rattled global markets and ...

WASHINGTON: The United States is entering a period of structurally higher industrial natural gas demand, with consumption expected to remain at record levels through at least 2027, even as the Iran war intensifies disruptions across global oil markets and tightens energy supplies worldwide. According to the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), industrial natural gas consumption in the United States averaged a record 23.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2025, exceeding the previous high of 23.4bcfd recorded in 2023. The projections suggest that rising industrial demand is no longer merely cyclical, but increasingly tied to deeper structural shifts in manufacturing, energy trade flows and global supply-chain realignment. The EIA expects industrial gas consumption to rise by another 1.2 per cent, or 0.3bcfd, in 2026, followed by an additional 1.7pc increase, or 0.4bcfd, in 2027. At the centre of the trend is sustained expansion in energy-intensive manu...

Soaring diesel prices since the onset of the Iran war are draining already tight US school district budgets, making it more expensive to bus students and run generators in a shock officials say they will not be able to afford for long. School districts from Yakima, Washington to Waco, Texas are tapping emergency funding reserves to keep buses running. In remote Alaska, officials are scrambling to secure enough fuel to keep the lights on, according to Reuters interviews. “It’s more than a straw on the camel’s back, it’s like a haystack,” said Yakima Superintendent Trevor Greene. The stress reflects one of many knock-on impacts of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has disrupted the flow of around a fifth of the world’s oil supplies. Since the war started in late February, fuel prices have posted one of their most rapid climbs on record. The spike has upended economies around the globe. It has caused enough pain in the US to be a political liability for President Donald Trump ahead of November mid-term elections...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of direct involvement in military operations against his country during a Brics meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, Iranian state media reported. The spat comes a day after the UAE denied a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he visited the Gulf country during the Iran war, to which Araghchi already reacted by saying that “those colluding with Israel to sow division will be held to account”. “I didn’t name the UAE in my [Brics] statement for the sake of unity. But the truth is that the UAE was directly involved in the aggression against my country. When the attacks started, they didn’t even issue a condemnation,” state media quoted Araghchi as saying on Thursday, in response to comments made by the Emirati representative. Iranian state media did not specify what the Emirati representative said. According to the reports, Araghchi argued that neither US bases nor an alliance with Israel provided the UAE with secu...

Ship reported seized off UAE, steered towards Iran

Islamabad - Pakistan’s Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal met with Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Reza Amiri Moghadam to discuss expanding bilateral cooperation, particularly in the health sector on Tuesday.

Iran’s leadership is betting it can outlast an under-pressure Donald Trump in its peace negotiations with Washington, but its defiance risks renewed military confrontation, analysts say. With a shaky ceasefire holding, almost two-and-a-half months after the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic began, the US president has angrily dismissed Iran’s responses to an American proposal for a settlement, warning the truce is on its last legs. But analysts say that even after the assassination of long-time supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, Iran’s leadership remains fiercely ideological and dedicated to the preservation of the Islamic republic set up in the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah. The Iran flag flutters from a tall flagpole over high-rise buildings in northern Tehran on May 12, 2026. — AFP “They do think they can outlast Trump. The war is existential for them,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Chatham House think tank in Lon...

Iran on Monday asserted that it made “legitimate” demands in its latest formal response to the United States’ peace proposal, after US President Donald Trump rejected the reply as “totally unacceptable”. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran had called for an end to the war across the region, the lifting of the US blockade of Iranian ports, and the release of frozen assets abroad in its response. “We did not demand any concessions. The only thing we demanded was Iran’s legitimate rights,” said Baqaei in a weekly press briefing. He said Iran’s demands included “an end to the war in the region”, lifting the US blockade and “piracy”, and the “release of assets belonging to the Iranian people, which have for years been unjustly trapped in foreign banks”. “Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and establishing security in the region and Lebanon were other demands of Iran, which are considered a generous and responsible offer for regional security.” Baqaei said Washington continued to uphold ...

As fears of renewed conflict hang over Iran, conservationists are shoring up battered historic sites and taking stock of the damage caused by the war with the United States and Israel, though experts warn some repairs could take years. At Golestan Palace, a defining cultural landmark in central Tehran, shattered mirrors, broken doors and debris from ornate ceilings now lie scattered across parts of the site after shockwaves from strikes on the capital following the outbreak of war on February 28. The former royal residence, known for its sprawling gardens, pools and royal halls, has been listed as a Unesco World Heritage site since 2013. The fragile truce in place since April 8 has allowed experts to begin gauging the scale of the damage, though the complex remains closed to the public. Visitors walk through the damaged interiors of the historic Golestan Palace in Tehran on April 4, 2026. — AFP/File “The damage has been assessed at several levels, but a more detailed specialised evaluation is still underway,”...

• Questions seriousness of American diplomacy amid naval flare-ups • CIA report claims Tehran can withstand blockade for months • Bahrain arrests over 40 ‘pro-IRGC’ individuals • UK deploys warship to Mideast with eye on potential Hormuz mission • Israel continues strikes in Lebanon, targets highway south of Beirut TEHRAN / WASHINGTON / BEIRUT: Iran questioned the seriousness of American diplomacy on Saturday in the wake of renewed naval clashes in the Gulf, while keeping Washington waiting for a response to its latest negotiating position. A state of relative calm prevailed around the Strait of Hormuz, after days of sporadic flare-ups, as the United States waited for Iran’s response to its latest proposals to end more than two months of fighting and begin peace talks. US President Donald Trump had said on Friday that he was expecting Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal for a deal to extend a fragile truce and launch peace talks — “supposedly tonight”. But if Iran did send Pakistani mediators a re...

President Asif Ali Zardari asked Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to Iran to work towards further strengthening bilateral relations, with particular focus on trade, people-to-people contacts, and facilitation of Pakistani Zaireen visiting Iran.

The United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire, but Iran said the situation returned to normal while the US said it did not want to escalate. The renewed hostilities broke out as Washington was awaiting Iran’s response to a US proposal that would stop the fighting but leave the most contentious issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, unresolved for now. Iran’s military said the US targeted two ships entering the Strait of Hormuz and carried out strikes on Iranian territory. The US military said it fired in response to Iranian attacks. Trump told reporters the ceasefire was still in effect and sought to play down the exchange. “They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” Trump said, while inspecting renovations to the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool in Washington. Meanwhile, Iran’s top joint military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting an Iranian oil tanker and another ship, and of carrying out air attacks on ...

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that Islamabad was hopeful about and would expect an agreement between the US and Iran “sooner rather than later”. He said this during a weekly briefing, where he was asked how soon the agreement could be expected. “You have asked us how soon we can expect an agreement. We remain optimistic. A simple answer would be that we expect an agreement sooner rather than later. We hope that the parties will come to a peaceful, sustainable solution and bring peace, not just to our region but internationally as well,” he said. In this regard, Andrabi also said Pakistan would welcome a settlement between Iran and the US wherever it may be reached. “If an agreement is reached in Pakistan, it would be an honour for us,” he said. The FO spokesperson also said he could not say whether the draft of the agreement would be one page or longer. Asked whether the US government could be under pressure to end the war due to the upcoming mid-term elections, Andrabi said:...

WASHINGTON: After weeks of military escalation, economic pressure and threats of a wider regional conflict, the Trump administration now appears to be searching for a diplomatic exit from its confrontation with Iran, even as officials in Washington insist the United States still holds the upper hand. President Donald Trump’s decision this week to pause a planned naval operation aimed at escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz has triggered debate over whether Washington is moving toward a negotiated settlement or simply recalibrating pressure before renewed escalation. The debate has been further intensified by Trump’s assertion that a peace deal with Iran is now likely — a claim that contrasts with the uncertainty still surrounding core disputes over nuclear capability, sanctions and maritime security. Analysts say the latest shift reflects a familiar pattern in US-Iran relations: escalation followed by partial de-escalation, without a clear end state. One of the most prominent voices analy...