Iran, pressure from Pakistan and Qatar for peace agreement
The Pakistani mediator Munir has flown to Tehran, dalso from Doha. According to the Arab media, an agreement is imminent but Tehran denies it
from our correspondent in New York Marco Valsania
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Diplomatic pressure from Pakistan and Qatar to wrest Tehran to an agreement with the US that would avert the resumption of a war that is devastating to the region and increasingly dangerous to the global economy.
The influential Pakistani army chief Syed Asim Munir, according to rumours, flew to Iran with the mission of finalising an at least provisional understanding to replace the current fragile truce. Also arriving in Tehran was a delegation from Doha, which until now has remained on the sidelines and is now supposedly coordinating an entry into the field with Washington.
At the heart of the face-to-face talks is a letter of intent calling for an immediate end to all fighting, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and guidelines for a 30-day negotiating phase that would work out the details of the hottest chapters, from Tehran's nuclear programme to the fate of its enriched uranium stockpile, from peace guarantees to the future of Hormuz and the phasing out of heavy US sanctions on Iran. The Saudi TV network Al-Arabiya said that a final ceasefire text, a draft of which it had seen, could be ready within hours.
The suspense over the outcome of the intense manoeuvres was however underlined by the official silence so far of the protagonists. From the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad, spokesmen indicated until the last that they were "not aware of a visit" from Iran by Munir, although they did not rule it out after days of lower-level meetings.
Not only that. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei warned that if the dialogue continues, 'we cannot say that an agreement is imminent'. And the Iranian negotiating delegation reaffirmed that 'Tehran demands respect for its rights'. Although the country's media, perhaps as a sign of détente, revealed that 35 cargo ships had transited Hormuz in the last 24 hours, with the Iranian navy coordinating, more than on any other day. Hours earlier they had spoken of a narrowing of differences between the parties.
