Talks in crucial phase

INDIRECT peace talks between the United States and Iran have entered in a crucial phase as Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, who has all along been intimately involved in the mediation efforts, once again reached Tehran on Friday for talks with the Iranian leadership on de-escalation and proposed peace deal. His visit assumes special significance and relevance as Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was already there and had extensive discussions with senior leaders of Iran as part of the efforts to hammer out differences on the reported draft agreement. In view of the understandable secrecy surrounding behind-the-scenes mediation efforts, it is not clear what prompted the CDF to visit the Iranian capital when the Pakistani leadership was already in contact with the Iranian leadership through the Interior Minister. There could be two possible explanations — either the two sides were close to a peace deal or Iranian leaders still have major objections to the draft. Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, reported on Sunday that progress has been made on several issues in ongoing talks, but stressed that no final agreement will be reached unless all outstanding differences are resolved. The source was quoted as saying that while discussions had moved forward in a constructive direction, key disputed matters still required resolution before any comprehensive deal could be concluded. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, was quoted by IRNA news agency as saying diplomacy takes time and suggesting that the sides had not reached a point where an agreement was close. He has described differences with the United States ‘deep and significant’ and talked about in terms of weeks and months for diplomacy to succeed. These remarks from Iranian officials clearly show that Tehran was not in a hurry to sign a deal. However, the visit of the CDF, who is also maintaining a close contac