By Humeyra Pamuk, Rami Ayyub and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM/TEL AVIV, March 24 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s prime minister said on Tuesday he was willing to host talks between the United States and Iran on ending the war, a day after President Donald Trump postponed threats to bomb Iranian power plants after what he called “productive” talks.
In a post on X, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the war in the Middle East.
“Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” he said.
Trump said on Monday the U.S. and Iran had held “very good and productive” conversations about a “complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East”. He said talks had begun on Sunday and continued into Monday, with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner involved.
Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf – the interlocutor on the Iranian side, according to an Israeli official and two other sources familiar with the matter – said no talks had taken place, describing suggestions that they had taken place as “fake news”.
The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28 after saying they had failed to make enough headway in talks aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear program although mediator Oman said significant progress had been made.
Since then, Iran has attacked countries that host U.S. bases, struck Gulf energy infrastructure and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Ariba Shahid in Karachi and Saad Sayeed in Bangkok; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by David Brunnstrom, Michael Perry and Sharon Singleton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Stephen Coates and Kevin Liffey)
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