Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced that Iran and the United States have reached a final peace deal, marking what would be the most significant diplomatic breakthrough between the two adversaries in decades.
A long road through Islamabad
Pakistan has served as the intermediary for US-Iran talks since April 2026, hosting multiple rounds of discussions in Islamabad. A direct negotiation session on April 11-12 lasted 21 hours. It ended not with a handshake but with the US blocking Iranian ports.
By late May, the tone had shifted considerably. On May 23, President Donald Trump stated that a US-Iran “Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to peace” was largely negotiated, citing discussions with regional leaders including Sharif. The agreement reportedly included provisions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping chokepoint that handles roughly a fifth of global petroleum transit.
Draft agreements circulated under the working title “Islamabad Accord” covered a sprawling set of issues: ceasefire terms, sanctions relief, and nuclear compliance.
