Pakistan said on Wednesday it would continue efforts to bring the United States and Iran back to negotiations despite a fresh escalation in their months-long conflict.
“Despite recent escalations, we remain hopeful and continue to strive for dialogue and diplomacy,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters in Islamabad.
His remarks came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched simultaneous retaliatory attacks on US bases in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq.
The IRGC said the operation was in response to a US strike on a house in Sirik in southern Iran a day earlier. Iranian authorities said four people, including a child, were killed in that attack.
In one of Wednesday’s attacks, the IRGC said it targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, claiming that US personnel were killed and drones destroyed. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the Iranian claims.
Pakistan has played a central mediating role between Washington and Tehran since the conflict began on February 28, maintaining diplomatic contacts with both sides as fighting has continued.
Andrabi pointed to recent visits to Tehran by Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, as well as the foreign ministers of Qatar and Oman, as part of diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing the conflict to an end.
The latest diplomatic push has focused particularly on efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, whose disruption has had wider consequences for international shipping and energy markets.
Pakistan maintains that the framework previously negotiated between Washington and Tehran remains the strongest basis for restarting negotiations.
“We underscored that the understanding reached between the US and Iran under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding offers the most viable pathway toward lasting peace and stability in the region,” Andrabi said.
Islamabad’s renewed call for negotiations comes as the latest exchanges threaten to undermine previous diplomatic efforts and widen a conflict that has already drawn several countries across the region into its security and economic consequences.