‘Talks were almost dead’: Pakistan’s last-ditch effort to secure Iran war truce

By Asif Shahzad, Alexander Cornwell and Ariba Shahid

ISLAMABAD/TEL AVIV, April 8 (Reuters) – Mediation efforts to halt the war in Iran were hours from collapse when Pakistan mounted an overnight diplomatic push to secure a temporary ceasefire and bring Washington and Tehran into direct negotiations, four Pakistani sources told Reuters.

The effort nearly unravelled after an Iranian strike on a Saudi petrochemical facility triggered fury in Riyadh and threatened to derail weeks of back-channel diplomacy, the sources – with direct knowledge of the talks – said. 

With a deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump looming, Pakistani officials mounted a last-ditch attempt to pass messages between Tehran and Washington, after Trump warned that continued fighting that night could wipe out “a whole civilization.”

Pakistan’s effort involved direct contact with top officials across all sides, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and senior Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Vahidi, one of the sources said.

After what a second source described as several “intense, breathless” hours during which “the talks were almost dead”, Iran agreed to a temporary ceasefire without preconditions and to enter negotiations. 

“In the evening, Iran was on thin ice after the attacks on KSA (Saudi Arabia) but they knew there would be no extension to the deadline,” the first source said. 

Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership remained engaged through the night, speaking to senior U.S. and Iranian, Saudi and other officials until Trump announced the breakthrough.

Minutes before Trump posted the announcement, he was on the phone with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, the source said.

ASSURANCES ON ISRAEL

While Pakistan conveyed its “strongest ever anger” to Iran over the strike on Saudi Arabia, with whom Islamabad has a mutual defence pact that could drag it into the war, it simultaneously sought assurances from Washington that it would rein in Israeli strikes on Iran.

Iranian officials said they had launched the strike on the petrochemical complex in Jubail after an Israeli attack on an Iranian petrochemical facility, the second source said. Tehran could not enter negotiations if such strikes continued, they added.

Pakistan then told Washington that Israeli actions were jeopardising its peace efforts and that Islamabad might not be able to persuade Iran to come to the table, the source said.

Only after receiving an assurance that Israel would hold back, was Pakistan able to persuade Tehran to agree to a temporary ceasefire without preconditions.

A source briefed on the matter said that Israel had opposed a deal with Iran, believing more could be achieved militarily to further weaken Iran’s leadership, although Israel had decided to ultimately support any decision made by Trump.

A second source said that Israel had pressed the Trump administration against reaching a deal with Tehran.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether Israel had opposed a ceasefire.

An Israeli official said Washington had coordinated with Israel, insisting that the truce did not include any commitment to permanently end the war, compensate Iran or lift sanctions. 

In any negotiations with Tehran, Washington would insist Iran hand over its nuclear material, halt uranium enrichment and remove the threat posed of its ballistic missile programme, the official said.   

In a televised address on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had yet to achieve all its goals, but could do so either through a U.S.-Iran deal or by resuming the fighting, warning that Israel’s “finger is on the trigger.”

NO ONE SLEPT

Around midnight (1900 GMT), Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged all parties to observe a ceasefire to allow the peace process to begin. 

The request was a coordinated move to lock in the ceasefire and came after both sides had already agreed in principle, the first source said.

“We wouldn’t have made the request if the answer was going to be negative,” the source said.

The late-night conversations included repeated exchanges over a 15-point U.S. proposal and two core questions: what would the ceasefire look like and the parameters for the talks, a diplomat from the Middle East who has been in contact with both sides said.

Iran proposed recognition of its sovereignty over the international waterway at the centre of much of the conflict – the Strait of Hormuz – a demand likely to be unacceptable to Washington, the diplomat said.

Tehran was also asking for the right to pursue nuclear energy and strike bilateral defence deals with regional states, as mediators tried to steer talks away from issues that could cause immediate clashes, the diplomat added.

Talks will start on Saturday and the U.S. delegation will be led by Vance, with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also part of the team, the White House said in an announcement that followed hours of speculation on what Trump would decide.

Iran has indicated it would turn over its stocks of enriched uranium, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters as she made the announcement about talks.

Two Pakistani sources said the Iranian delegation would be led by Araqchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

A third Pakistani source said the hardest part of the process was convincing Iran to accept a truce without preconditions. 

“Until the last hours, Iran acted as a hardliner. The Iranians were not ready to budge without first putting their demands forward. We told them the demands can wait for the talks to happen,” the source said. 

By the time Trump announced the ceasefire and Sharif extended invitations to delegations from both countries, the sun was nearly rising over Islamabad.

“We have been working throughout the night,” Sharif said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “… if we turn it into a book it will serve as a big lesson for this nation and for generations to come, about how not to give up in a hopeless situation.” 

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad and Saad Sayeed in Islamabad, Ariba Shahid in Karachi, Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Humeyra Pamuk in Budapest, Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, Timour Azhari in Dubai and Ethan Wang in Beijing; Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Ros Russell and Chizu Nomiyama )