ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday urged the United States and Iran to shun renewed attacks against each other and resume talks to end their war, saying that “peace never dies” and all conflicts are resolved at the negotiation tables.
The statement came after Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, following an expanded US military campaign with strikes deeper inside Iran and tightening of a naval blockade around the Islamic republic this week that marked another sharp escalation in the conflict centered on the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan emerged as a key intermediary by facilitating contacts between senior US and Iranian officials that paved the way for last month’s interim peace agreement, called the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that included a 60-day ceasefire, reopening of Hormuz, and a timetable for a final deal on the war and Iran’s nuclear program.
Speaking at a weekly press briefing, Pakistani foreign office spokesman Tahir Andrabi reiterated Pakistan’s call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from any actions that could further undermine regional peace, dispelling reports that Islamabad had distanced itself from the mediation process.
