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For a few hours on Saturday, it appeared that the long diplomatic effort led by Pakistan to end the US-Iran war was approaching its culmination.
President Donald Trump spoke of signing an agreement on Sunday, while Pakistani and Qatari mediators echoed the same with high confidence.
Interestingly enough, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also remarked that a deal had never been closer. Still, within hours, Tehran publicly pushed back against reports that a signing ceremony was imminent, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei making it clear that no agreement would be signed that day.
Still, as these lines were being written, it was not clear whether the delay was temporary or whether the negotiators were struggling to bridge differences that remain unresolved. Such uncertainty, in any case, isn’t unusual in diplomacy especially when it is taking place between arch rivals like the US and Iran.
