A high profile Iranian official has mentioned that Pakistan is not the right mediator between the United States and Iran in peace talks as it raises issues of neutrality and credibility. Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesman of the Iranian national security organisation, indicated that although Pakistan is a friendly neighbor, it is prone to be too close to Donald Trump and US interests in the course of diplomatic interactions.
Rezaei in a public statement argued that a good mediator should be neutral, to which he added that Pakistan has failed so frequently to respond to the requirement. He cited historical cases where initiatives, as proposed, failed to materialise and argued that Islamabad had not questioned American positions when they had to. In his opinion, this kind of behaviour diminishes trust in high-stakes negotiations.
The comments are made against a background of diplomatic strains between Washington and Tehran, especially after Iran charged the US with breaching a ceasefire agreed upon the US-Israeli attacks earlier this year. Pakistan had been a reportedly participating party in that ceasefire arrangement.
On April 11 and 12, the US and Iran had direct discussions in Islamabad, which took almost 21 hours, but did not result in a tangible breakthrough. Nonetheless, even with non-progress, both parties were willing to maintain an open communication channel to have a dialogue in the future.
In the meantime, the US Vice President JD Vance recognized the efforts of Pakistan in hosting the talks saying that the failure of the talks did not belong to Islamadad and he commended the efforts of Pakistan in hosting talks.
Iran has blamed the collapse of the negotiations on what it termed as too high demands of the US and an overall sense of mistrust, which only worsens the chances of a resolution.