By Naimat Khan
Key Takeaways:
- Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran Monday for a two-day trip, received by counterpart Eskander Momeni; IRNA confirmed talks on bilateral ties and the region. An unnamed interior official told Arab News he would meet senior Iranians on the current situation. Naqvi has shuttled before as a mediator.
- Backdrop in the piece: a U.S.–Iran stalemate after late-February U.S.–Israeli strikes; Tehran holding Hormuz, Washington squeezing ports and the economy; Iranian replies on U.S. Gulf bases and neighbors; Houthis hitting southern Saudi energy sites this month.
- A day earlier, speaker/negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran’s terms for reopening Hormuz had gone to Washington via mediators and the strait stays shut until U.S. commitments are kept. Pakistan hosted rare direct talks and a June interim deal that collapsed; Islamabad still wants that track.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Monday to discuss regional developments with Iranian leadership, officials said amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The United States (US) and Iran are locked in a stalemate, months into the conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. Tehran has since maintained a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for the world’s oil and gas, while Washington is pushing a campaign to choke the Islamic republic’s ports and economy.
Tehran has responded to attacks by targeting US bases in the Gulf region as well as civilian and economic interests in its neighborhood. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have also attacked southern Saudi Arabia with drones and missiles this month, injuring dozens of people, damaging energy-related facilities and opening another front in the broader conflict.
Pakistani officials confirmed to Arab News on Monday that Naqvi, who has frequently traveled to Iran as part of Pakistan’s mediation efforts to end the conflict, has once again left for Tehran to meet high-ranking Iranian officials during his two-day visit to the country.
“He will meet senior Iranian officials to discuss the current situation in the region,” an official who works at the interior ministry, told Arab News on condition of anonymity.
A subsequent video shared by Pakistan’s interior ministry with media representatives showed Naqvi arriving in Tehran and being received by his counterpart, Eskander Momeni. The video also showed both officials engaging in delegation-level talks.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency also confirmed Naqvi’s visit.
“Pakistani Interior Minister would discuss the expansion of bilateral relations and the latest regional developments while in Tehran,” it said.
The development comes a day after Iran’s top negotiator said that Tehran had conveyed to Washington through mediators its conditions for reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
“Our messages and the explanation of our conditions have been clearly conveyed to the other party through mediators,” said Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has acted as chief negotiator in talks to end the war.
“As long as the conditions are not met… and the US commitments are not honored, it will be impossible to return to the situation from before the negotiations and to an open strait,” he added, according to state television.
Pakistan emerged as a key mediator in the US-Iran war, hosting rare, direct talks between the parties and helping reach an interim peace deal in June. However, the peace deal quickly fell apart, and both sides resumed attacks against each other in the Middle East.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged a return to the US-Iran interim agreement, maintaining that dialogue and diplomacy were the only way to resolve the months-long conflict.
