Pakistan is Trying Its Best to Bring the US-Iran Back to Negotiations in Accordance with the MoU

Iranian and US flag Dok. (Source: IRNA)

JAKARTA - Pakistan's mediator said on Thursday his side was trying "to the best of its ability" to bring Iran and the United States back to negotiations based on a memorandum of understanding (MoU), which aims to stop their war, of which Islamabad is one of the signatories.

"We are trying our best to bring all parties back to the Islamabad MoU," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters, adding that Pakistan encourages the countries to "fully comply with their commitment to hold technical talks" based on the agreement, launching Al Arabiya (31/7).

Pakistan also confirmed that negotiations between the US and Iran "are ongoing" amid increased fighting across the Middle East.

"Negotiations between the parties are ongoing, especially regarding the Strait of Hormuz and to ease tensions," Andrabi told reporters.

Meanwhile, an Al Arabiya source said on Thursday that mediation efforts had not produced any tangible results to stop the escalation between the US and Iran.

The sources added that mediators are trying to reach a ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran.

The statement comes as the US military on Thursday said it had completed its latest wave of strikes against Iran, which lasted two hours and hit dozens of targets, with Washington calling the attacks a "strong response" to Iranian missiles launched at US forces in the Middle East the day before.

The US military said earlier this week that it intercepted several ballistic missiles launched by Iran towards US forces in what Washington called a "sudden attack attempt" by Tehran. Iran confirmed that it had fired at a US base in Jordan.

President Donald Trump said after the missiles were intercepted that US forces would retaliate.

"We will hit them very hard," he said.

Meanwhile, the US Central Command (US CENTCOM) described the latest attack on X as a "strong response to Iran's yesterday's attack attempt on US forces based in the Middle East."

The war broke out on February 28 when the US and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran retaliated with its own attacks on Israel and the Gulf states.

US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed thousands of people and displaced millions.