Pakistan succeeded in brokering a ceasefire between the US and Iran on Tuesday by crafting a bridging proposal that softened the language of a 10-point Iranian proposal that had been swiftly rejected by Washington a day earlier, two government officials familiar with the negotiations tell The Times of Israel.
Pakistan feared that the talks were on the verge of collapse on Monday after the US notified Islamabad of its complete rejection of the Iranian proposal, the two government officials say. At that point, only one day was left before US President Donald Trump’s deadline to blow up Iranian energy sites if Tehran didn’t agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan subsequently rushed to put together a bridging proposal that kept many of Iran’s positions intact, while using language that Islamabad believed would be easier for the US to swallow, the two officials say.
After receiving the bridging proposal from Pakistan on Tuesday, the US quickly accepted it as sufficient enough to serve as the basis for negotiations on a longterm deal, the government officials say.
One of the officials tells The Times of Israel that they were surprised at how quickly Washington got on board with the bridging proposal and says it points to how badly the US wanted a ceasefire, despite Trump’s fiery rhetoric about his readiness to bomb Iran into the “stone age.”
Hours after the US approval came in, Iran’s authorization of the bridging proposal followed, allowing for the two-week ceasefire to be announced by Trump less than two hours before his deadline expired.
Shortly after Trump’s announcement, though, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council published what it claimed were the contents of the 10-point proposal that the US had accepted.
The two government officials familiar with the negotiations confirm to The Times of Israel that the 10-point plan published by the Supreme National Security Council was not the bridging proposal crafted by Pakistan and was instead much more similar to the original Iranian offer that was swiftly rejected by the US on Monday.
One of the government officials says that Iran published the older version of the 10-point proposal for domestic political reasons, aiming to convince its public that it had coaxed the US into accepting Tehran’s original terms for a deal.