Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar greets Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as he arrives at Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Friday. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/AP
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad with the powerful rumble of Pakistani fighter jets accompanying his sizable civilian plane to a military base near the capital.
Just after midnight, he was welcomed by Pakistan’s leading negotiators, the influential Field Marshal Asim Munir, along with the foreign and interior ministers of Pakistan.
What occurred next was atypical according to the usual standards of diplomacy.
They engaged in extensive discussions throughout the night, which concluded just as the sun began to rise nearly five hours later.
US President Donald Trump stated he is “not in a hurry” for an agreement, yet the appearance of this meeting implies a different message.
For a number of days during the past week, the visible aspect of the peace initiatives had been moving at a sluggish pace. Events that occurred in the early hours of this morning suggest a heightened sense of urgency.
The reason the delegations didn’t gather at a more reasonable time remains uncertain, but it seems they felt the need to finish their initial in-person conversation before Trump and other US representatives ended their day.
Pakistan is nine hours ahead of Washington, DC, meaning that as the sun rose here this morning, it was only 8 p.m. there. ET at Mar-a-Lago.
It’s unclear how the discussions here will influence the decisions Trump makes overnight.
Simultaneously, the pace of travel to Pakistan for Trump’s chief envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner now seems to have been delayed slightly.
Their arrival in Pakistan is now anticipated for Sunday. The timing of their eventual arrival, if it occurs at all, will reveal more about whether a breakthrough is likely.
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