HYDERABAD - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said his country is committed to its mediation role to end the war in West Asia as tensions rose between Iran and the United States.
Shehbaz on Sunday evening held a 45-minute telephone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the evolving regional situation.
The Pakistan prime minister last week travelled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye as part of Islamabad's high-stakes diplomacy to achieve longer-term calm in West Asia after Iran and the US on April 7 agreed a temporary two-week ceasefire through Pakistani mediation.
Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir was in Iran for three days for talks with top leaders, with expectations that Iran and the US would hold a new round of talks in Islamabad to reach an agreement.
"I appreciated Iran's engagement, including its high-level delegation to Islamabad for the historic talks, and recent discussions with Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir in Tehran.
I also shared insights from my recent engagements with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye," Shehbaz said in a post on X after the call with Pezeshkian.
"I assured him that, with the support of friends and partners, Pakistan remains fully committed to its role as an honest and sincere facilitator of lasting peace and regional stability," he added.
Recent comments by US President Donald Trump and Iran's leaders show the two sides are unable to bridge their differences which prevented them from reaching an agreement when their negotiators met in the Pakistani capital on April 11-12.
Iranian officials have in particular blasted the US for recently launching a sea "blockade" of Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said it is not only a "violation of Pakistani-mediated ceasefire but also both unlawful and criminal.”
Iran said its determination to defend its integrity against "any renewed adventurism by America and the Zionist regime is serious" as Trump announced that the US seized an Iranian cargo ship named Touska near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has vowed to respond to the US military's attack on the ship, raising fears that heightened US-Iran tensions may harm the Islamabad-brokered peace process.
"The US violated the ceasefire and carried out maritime piracy by firing on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman, disabling its navigation system, and landing armed personnel on board.
Iran will respond soon," according to an Iranian military statement. While the US has announced it will send a delegation to Pakistan for a new round of peace talks, Iran has not confirmed such a meeting.
The reports about a second round of negotiations in Islamabad are false, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Sunday.
"US excessive demands, unreasonable and unrealistic expectations, frequent shifts in positions, continuous contradictions, and the so-called naval blockade which violates ceasefire understanding along with threatening rhetoric, have so far hindered progress in the negotiations," it said in a post on X. - BERNAMA