There’s still radio silence from Iranian officials as to whether they will go to Islamabad for a second round of high-level, high-stakes negotiations.
But with every hour that passes, there is a growing sense that the talks will take place. Iranians had to make their point, even before the latest incident in the Strait of Hormuz, according to BBC.
When we speak to officials here they say they have their reservations about this negotiating process, even though US President Donald Trump continues to talk about great progress, a deal within days even.
There is still concern here that the way the negotiations are taking place tend to be demands made of the Iranians that they are not ready to make.
But they do want this process to continue, so at the end of the day there may well be talks in Islamabad this week – we just have to wait for that confirmation from both sides.
Meanwhile, Trump on Monday said, according to dw.com, “I am under no pressure whatsoever” to make a deal with Iran, but said he would, nevertheless, promising it will “all happen relatively quickly.”
In a statement on his Truth Social account, Trump posted: “The DEAL that we are making with Iran will be FAR BETTER than the JCPOA, commonly referred to as “The Iran Nuclear Deal.”
That deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was penned in 2015 after nearly two years of negotiations. It put strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for international sanctions relief.
It was signed by Iran and the so-called P5+1 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: The US, UK, France, China and Russia, plus Germany.
Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal in 2018, during his first term in office.
Trump is facing mounting criticism that there is no path to quickly resolving such a complex problem and that any new agreement is unlikely to be as effective as the original.
