US, Iranian teams could return to Islamabad for peace talks this week, five sources say
By Ariba Shahid and Mubasher Bukhari
ISLAMABAD, April 14 (Reuters) – Negotiating teams from the United States and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week, five sources said on Tuesday; Just days after decades of top-level talks between the two countries ended with no progress.
A source who participated in the talks said that the date has not been determined yet, but both countries could return by the end of this week.
“An exact date has not been determined as the delegations remain open from Friday to Sunday,” a senior Iranian source said.
The weekend meeting in the Pakistani capital to resolve the dispute between the United States and Iran, four days after last Tuesday’s ceasefire declaration nL1N40B090, was the first direct encounter between U.S. and Iranian officials in more than a decade and the highest-level contact since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The first source said a proposal was shared with both the US and Iran to resend their delegates to continue negotiations.
Two Pakistani sources with knowledge of the talks said Islamabad was in communication with the two sides about the timing of the next round and the meeting was likely to take place over the weekend.
“We contacted Iran and received a positive response that they would be open to a second round of talks,” a senior Pakistani government official said.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry, army and prime minister’s office did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf led their respective delegations in the latest round of talks to resolve a number of nL6N40U01E issues, including the Strait of Hormuz, a key choke point for global energy, which Iran has effectively blocked but the US has promised to reopen. Like Iran’s nuclear program and international sanctions against Tehran.
“We’re leaving here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding, which is our final and best proposal,” Vance told reporters after the talks ended.
“We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Sharon Singleton)
