Tehran, Iran. Iran’s foreign minister met Pakistan’s interior minister on Friday to discuss proposals to end the U.S.-Israeli war, Iranian media reported. Tehran and Washington remain at odds over Iran’s uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran meeting and mediation efforts
Syed Mohsin Naqvi held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran two days after presenting the Iranians with the latest U.S. message in the negotiations, according to the semi-official Tasnim and ISNA news agencies.
ISNA reported that Naqvi was facilitating communication aimed at achieving a framework for ending the war and resolving differences.
U.S. remarks on talks and Hormuz tolling
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday there had been “some good signs” in the talks, but said there could be no solution if Tehran enforced a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz, which it effectively closed to most shipping after the war began on February 28.
“There’s some good signs,” Rubio said. “I don’t want to be overly optimistic … So, let’s see what happens over the next few days.”
Sticking points and economic impact
A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Thursday that gaps had been narrowed, although uranium enrichment and the Strait of Hormuz remained among the sticking points.
The war has disrupted the global economy, with rising oil prices stoking fears of inflation. About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments travelled through the Strait of Hormuz before the war.
The U.S. dollar was near its highest level in six weeks on Friday amid uncertainty over the peace talks, while oil prices climbed as investors doubted the prospects of a breakthrough.
“We’re coming to the end of week 12, we’re six weeks in the ceasefire, and I’m just not really that convinced we’re any closer to a resolution between the U.S. and Iran,” Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, said of the Middle East war.
Trump on Iran’s uranium stockpile
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which Washington believes is destined for a nuclear weapon though Tehran says it is intended purely for peaceful purposes.
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