Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in New York on Thursday, with regional tensions and Pakistan’s continuing efforts to mediate between Tehran and Washington expected to feature prominently in their discussions.
The two leaders, accompanied by their foreign ministers, met on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly. According to the Pakistani prime minister’s office, talks were expected to cover bilateral relations as well as the wider regional situation amid the continuing US-Iran conflict. Further details of the meeting had yet to be released.
Pakistan has been involved in diplomatic efforts between Iran and the United States since the US and Israel launched military operations against Iran on February 28.
Speaking at the UN a day before his meeting with Pezeshkian, Shehbaz described Islamabad’s role as one of impartial mediation.
“Pakistan is playing the role of a sincere and honest mediator between Iran, our neighborly country, and the United States,” he told reporters.
Pakistan helped facilitate a ceasefire on April 8 and subsequently hosted more than 20 hours of negotiations between American and Iranian officials in Islamabad.
Those diplomatic efforts eventually led Pakistan and Qatar to help broker the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, signed by Pezeshkian, US President Donald Trump and Shehbaz on June 18. The framework provided a 60-day period for negotiations towards a longer-term agreement intended to end the conflict.
Referring to developments after the agreement, Shehbaz acknowledged that the diplomatic process had encountered difficulties.
“Unfortunately, events after that got a bit unpredictable,” he said.
The prime minister nevertheless insisted Islamabad remained committed to diplomacy. “But Pakistan is completely focused. We have not lost hope; we [are] absolutely determined that we will further make efforts and make progress to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
Despite the mediation efforts, Iran and the United States subsequently resumed retaliatory strikes and tensions have continued. Iranian and American negotiators also held indirect talks in New York on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.