By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appealed directly to Iran’s president on Friday to avoid any steps that could unravel weeks of painstaking diplomacy, as the United States and Iran exchanged a third consecutive round of military strikes and the ceasefire Pakistan brokered last month showed signs of buckling.
In a telephone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Sharif said he had voiced “deep concern” over the sudden escalation and urged all sides — Iran included — to step back from actions that could undo months of difficult progress, according to a readout from the prime minister’s office. Sharif later described the conversation in a social media post, saying the two leaders had discussed “the evolving regional situation” and agreed on the need for “restraint, dialogue and diplomacy to safeguard the hard-earned peace gains of recent months.”
The call came as the region absorbed a second straight day of US airstrikes on Iranian territory and Iranian retaliatory attacks on American interests across the Gulf — an exchange that began after Iranian forces struck three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passes.
The U.S. Central Command said its strikes, which began Tuesday, hit more than 80 targets and were aimed at degrading Iran’s “ability to threaten the freedom of navigation” in the strait. Iran’s military leadership vowed a “crushing response,” and within hours, explosions were reported in the southern Iranian port cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik, as well as on Qeshm Island. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that a commercial pier at Sirik was struck and that several people were wounded by shrapnel.
The renewed fighting has placed new strain on the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, the framework Pakistan spent months helping negotiate between Washington and Tehran. Signed on June 17 by President Trump and Pezeshkian, the memorandum set a 60-day clock for the two sides to reach a fuller agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program, the unfreezing of Iranian financial assets and the long-term management of the Strait of Hormuz. It also called for a complete halt to military operations “on all fronts.”
That truce has been tested repeatedly since. Late last month, the US and Iran traded strikes after Trump accused Tehran of violating the agreement by launching drones at container ships. This week’s exchange, following attacks on a Qatari-flagged and a Saudi-flagged tanker in the strait, is the most serious challenge yet to the memorandum — and prompted Trump, speaking Tuesday at a NATO summit in Ankara, to declare the ceasefire “over.”
“It’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” Trump said of Iranian officials. “I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it. I don’t like these people.”
He said the United States would strike Iran “hard” that night. It did, and Tehran struck back the following day, extending the exchange into a second and then third day.
By Friday, Trump had softened his position somewhat, writing on his Truth Social platform that Iran had asked to continue talks and that Washington had agreed — while insisting the ceasefire itself remained void. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks,'” he wrote. “We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”
Iranian officials offered a different account. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tehran denied that Iran had requested new negotiations, telling state television that the government had only agreed to receive a Qatari delegation seeking to find a way through the impasse. Qatari officials were reported Friday to be in Iran attempting to de-escalate the standoff and lay groundwork for broader talks, possibly to be hosted in Qatar or Pakistan.
Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, signaled Tehran was still willing to talk, but warned against mistaking that willingness for weakness. “At any moment the Americans betray the understanding, we are ready for full-scale defense and will stand firm against them and defend the rights of the Iranian people,” he said. “Ending the war is a priority for the countries of the world, but everyone should know that this conflict will never end with Iran’s surrender.”
A funeral, and a fragile succession
The latest strikes landed at a delicate moment for Iran’s leadership. They came as President Pezeshkian was travelling home from Najaf, Iraq, where he had attended funeral processions for Iran’s slain Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed alongside members of his family in the US-Israeli strikes that opened the war in late February. Iran’s Assembly of Experts subsequently named Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader — though the younger Khamenei has yet to appear publicly since taking the role, and multiple news organizations have reported he was seriously wounded in the strike that killed his father.
During Friday’s call, Pezeshkian thanked Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief and chief of defense forces, for representing Pakistan at the elder Khamenei’s funeral, according to the Pakistani readout. Sharif, in turn, conveyed his regards to the new supreme leader.
The two leaders also reviewed progress on commitments made during Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad last month, agreeing to move quickly on follow-up steps, and pledged to stay in close contact on regional developments, the prime minister’s office said.
Pakistan presses its case at the UN
Hours before the call, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, made a similar appeal to the Security Council, telling member states that the Islamabad memorandum remained the clearest available path out of the crisis.
“The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, signed last month, offers a viable roadmap to address all outstanding issues through diplomatic means,” Ahmad said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “Pakistan urges all sides to uphold their respective commitments under the Islamabad MOU, which remains an enduring foundation for understanding, mutual respect, and shared prosperity for the region and beyond.”
Ahmad said Islamabad had been encouraged by expert-level talks held in recent weeks and urged all parties to avoid rhetoric that could complicate the negotiations further. “As these sensitive negotiations continue, we should avoid any actions or messaging that may contribute to misunderstanding,” he told the council. “All our efforts and energies should be devoted to advancing the implementation of the Islamabad MOU.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Office had issued a similar warning earlier in the week, calling the prospect of renewed full-scale conflict something that served “no one’s interest” and pressing Washington and Tehran to return to the table. “There is no alternative to continued engagement, dialogue and diplomacy to achieve a shared goal of peace in the region,” the ministry said in a statement.
Sharif also spoke by phone Friday with Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, telling him Pakistan stood with the Qatari people and again stressing the need for restraint. In a social media post describing the call, Sharif thanked the emir “for Qatar’s steadfast support for peace efforts that led to the Islamabad MoU” and said the two governments remained committed to advancing regional stability.
Why the memorandum keeps fraying
At the heart of the dispute is a basic disagreement over what the Islamabad memorandum actually requires in the strait. Iranian officials have argued the agreement allows Tehran to direct how vessels transit Hormuz — justification, in their view, for strikes on ships that don’t comply with routes Iran has designated. American officials reject that reading, insisting the memorandum guarantees unfettered passage for commercial traffic.
Both governments have reasons to want a return to diplomacy rather than open conflict. The war has grown increasingly unpopular with American voters and poses a political risk to Trump’s party ahead of November’s midterm elections. Iran’s economy, already strained before the fighting began, has suffered further during the war, giving Tehran’s leadership incentive to see sanctions lifted and frozen assets released.
Still, analysts cautioned against reading too much into the renewed talk of negotiations. “I think in many ways they’re almost symbolic,” said Alex Alfirraz Scheers, a military analyst, of the prospects for near-term diplomatic progress. “Until there is genuine momentum with regards to trust-building and confidence-building, in the current context these talks will likely lead nowhere.”
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