Iran has passed a new proposal to Pakistani mediators to end the war with the United States, in the latest effort to break the deadlock in negotiations.<\/p>\n
Iranian state media reported that Tehran handed the offer to Pakistan on Thursday night, to pass on to Washington, though its contents were not immediately clear.<\/p>\n
The White House declined to comment on the new proposal, saying only that discussions continued.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the new proposal was seen by Pakistan\u2019s government as an outcome of its energetic back-channel diplomacy. Islamabad\u2019s role switched in recent days to the lower-profile but urgent task of passing messages between the two sides after the momentum behind direct talks stalled.<\/p>\n
Islamabad has said it believes a deal is within reach. But it faces an Iran that is in danger of overplaying its hand<\/a> and a US administration that is seeking total victory rather than a compromise.<\/p>\n Pakistani officials say they are conscious that it is not only regional peace at stake, but the health of the global economy and the livelihoods of millions of the poorest people in the world \u2013 including in Pakistan, whose monthly energy import bill has almost tripled because of the war.<\/p>\n The decision to submit proposals to Pakistan followed a debate inside Iran on whether it should pursue the diplomatic path at all, or instead rely on the leverage provided by the ad hoc blockade of the strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials hope Trump will want to end the conflict before his summit with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, on 14-15 May.<\/p>\n Islamabad views the continuation of the ceasefire, in place for more than three weeks, as a major achievement. Tehran and Washington have said Pakistan remains the primary conduit for negotiation.<\/p>\n Both Iran and the US hardened their positions after the breakthrough of getting them into the same room in Islamabad for an all-night negotiation session in April, the highest-level engagement between the two sides since the 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n According to Tehran, those talks got close to a deal but the US abruptly walked out. Washington said Iran was not prepared to go far enough. An attempt to engineer a second round<\/a> in Islamabad last weekend fell apart after the Iranian side refused to meet the US team, which was ready to fly in.<\/p>\n US officials briefed this week that Washington was considering returning to war. Some voices in Iran have expressed frustration that Pakistan has not been able to hold the US to commitments given in the negotiations.<\/p>\n Masood Khan, Pakistan\u2019s former ambassador to the US, said Pakistan was not only transmitting messages between the two sides. He said Islamabad\u2019s intervention had led to an initial two-week ceasefire and the US-Iran meeting with Pakistani officials as referees. Islamabad persuaded Trump to extend the ceasefire, he said, which now has no stated deadline.<\/p>\n The next task was to convince both sides to simultaneously lift their blockades on the strait of Hormuz, he said. But Trump this week said the blockade was more effective than bombing, while Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, hailed a \u201cnew chapter\u201d for the strait<\/a>, suggesting neither side was about to back down.<\/p>\n The US Treasury Office warned on Friday that any shipping companies that paid tolls to Iran for passage through the strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organisations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, would risk punitive sanctions. Tehran has proposed charging fees on vessels passing through the strait, as part of a deal to end the war.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan is playing a complex role as a mediator,\u201d said Khan. \u201cIran is signalling that it is playing a long game, but America wants quick results.\u201d<\/p>\n