“The Iranians want to talk. They want to talk in person, and the president is always willing to give diplomacy a chance,” White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Friday. “We hope that progress will be made and we hope that positive developments will come out of this meeting. We have certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last few days,” she added.
Arakci was expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday evening for talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other country officials. A Pakistani official told the Axios website that the meeting with Araki will focus on resuming negotiations with the Trump administration.
“After our meeting with Arakči, we are considering trilateral negotiations with the US,” the Pakistani official added. The head of Iranian diplomacy should travel from Islamabad to Muscat in Oman and then to Moscow, so it is not entirely clear when he will meet with American representatives, the website noted.
After Islamabad to Moscow
US Vice President JD Vance will not yet participate in the talks in Islamabad, but according to Leavitt, he will be ready to fly to Pakistan if the US feels that it is “necessary”.
American officials contacted by the website said that Vance is not flying due to the fact that even the head of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bakr Kalibáf, is not participating in the meeting this time.
He was said to have been frustrated by internal disputes in the Iranian leadership after the previous round of talks and even threatened to resign. It is not so clear whether he is still the main Iranian negotiator. “He has discussed with other Iranian officials about resigning and has considered it, but has not yet done so,” Axios quoted its American source as saying.
