Top diplomats from key regional powers met in Pakistan Sunday to seek an end to the Middle East war, but showed little progress as Israel and the U.S. continued strikes on Iran and Tehran retaliated with missiles and drones across the region.
Pakistan said foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt were participating in the talks in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held "extensive discussions" on regional hostilities.
More than 3,000 people have been killed throughout the monthlong war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering Iran's attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states.
The U.S. and Israel were not participating in the Islamabad talks. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, dismissed the talks as a cover while the U.S. dispatches additional troops to the Middle East.
He warned against any ground invasion and said Iran was ready to set American troops "on fire" and punish U.S. regional allies, according to Iranian state media.
Israel announced waves of incoming strikes from Iran Sunday and explosions could be heard throughout Tehran.
Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty, Türkiye’s Hakan Fidan and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal Bin Farhan were in Islamabad as part of talks scheduled days after the U.S. offered Iran a 15-point "action list" as a framework for a possible peace deal.
Abdelatty said the meetings were aimed at opening a "direct dialogue" between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators during the war.
Yet during the talks, Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
It agreed late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the critical passageway, Pakistani officials said, adding to the select few it has let through as Iran works to choke but not cut off the strait entirely.
The weekend provided little sign of the talks narrowing the disconnect between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. officials have insisted the war may be nearing an inflection point, but Iranian leaders continue to publicly reject negotiations.
To the contrary, the U.S. has dispatched thousands of additional Marines and paratroopers to the region. And the Iran-backed Houthis, who govern parts of Yemen, announced their long-awaited entry into the war, launching missiles toward what they called "sensitive Israeli military sites" for the first time Saturday.
Despite the deployments, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that Washington "can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops" as domestic opposition grows to expanding the war to a potential ground invasion, including among Republicans.
Yet Iranian officials have rejected the U.S. framework and, in public, dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure.
Still, Press TV, the English-language arm of Iran’s state broadcaster, reported last week that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal, citing an anonymous official.
The plan reportedly called for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Iran’s "exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz."
