ISLAMABAD: Deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, held a late-night telephone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday, reaffirming Islamabad’s determination to revive stalled peace talks between Washington and Tehran even as the economic fallout from the conflict continues to ripple across global energy markets.
Politics
Islamabad court rejects Imran Khan’s plea to suspend sentence in £190 million corruption case
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday turned down petitions by former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, seeking to suspend their prison sentences in a high-profile £190 million corruption case, ruling that their main appeals against conviction were already scheduled for an early hearing.
US transfers 22 Iranian crew members to Pakistan from seized vessel as confidence-building step amid Hormuz tensions
ISLAMABAD: The United States has repatriated 22 crew members from an Iranian container ship seized last month, transferring them to Pakistan as a confidence-building measure even as President Donald Trump announced the start of a military-backed operation to free hundreds of vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistani and American officials said Monday.
Trump launches ‘Project Freedom’ to free ships trapped in Hormuz as Iran weighs US reply to peace plan
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States will begin an operation Monday to guide hundreds of commercial vessels and their crews out of the Strait of Hormuz, where they have been trapped for weeks by Iran’s effective closure of the vital waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
US awards Northrop Grumman $488 million deal for F-16 radar support, including Pakistan’s fleet
ISLAMABAD: The United States has moved to extend the operational life of F-16 fighters flown by more than 20 partner nations, including Pakistan, with a $488 million engineering and technical support contract awarded to Northrop Grumman this week.
Iran signals openness to US talks on nuclear program and Strait of Hormuz but says next move is Washington’s
ISLAMABAD: Iran told the United States on Saturday that the path forward rests with Washington, offering a revised proposal that shows limited new flexibility on reopening the Strait of Hormuz while insisting it remains prepared for either diplomacy or continued confrontation.
Trump dismisses Iran’s latest peace proposal as ‘not satisfactory’
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump on Friday rejected Iran’s newest proposal for ending the US-Israeli war with Tehran, telling reporters he was “not satisfied” with the offer even as he formally notified Congress that hostilities had “terminated” and the 60-day clock under the War Powers Resolution had run out.
Pakistan sees sharp drop in militant attacks, casualties for second straight month
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan recorded a second consecutive month of markedly improved security conditions in April, with verified militant attacks falling by more than 40 percent and combat-related deaths declining sharply, according to a detailed report released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
Iran submits new proposal for US peace talks as Trump faces war-powers deadline and Hormuz crisis drags on
ISLAMABAD: Iran delivered a new proposal late on Thursday for a second round of negotiations with the United States aimed at ending the nearly nine-week war, Iranian state media and Pakistani officials involved in the mediation said on Friday, offering a potential opening in a diplomatic impasse that has kept global oil prices elevated and the Strait of Hormuz largely closed to commercial traffic.
Imran Khan’s lawyers urge Islamabad court to grant release on humanitarian grounds, citing solitary confinement and eye ailment
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers for former prime minister Imran Khan told the Islamabad High Court on Thursday that their client should be freed on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, pointing to more than a year of solitary confinement and an untreated eye infection that have worsened his condition in prison.