Donald Trump‘s Middle East envoy has reportedly travelled to Pakistan to hold peace talks with Iran as the regime’s feared missile barrage across the Gulf failed to materialise.
Pakistan has offered to act as a mediator between the US and Iran – and Steve Witkoff’s arrival in Islamabad has sparked hopes of a diplomatic end to the war.
It comes after the US President dramatically pulled back from the brink on his threat to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants within 48 hours.
As the hours ticked down to a deadline for the mullahs to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he suddenly claimed Tehran was on the cusp of agreeing to ‘no more wars’, ‘no more nuclear weapons‘, and ‘regime change’.
Mr Trump said there would be a ‘five-day’ pause on energy strikes after his talks with ‘the most respected’ leader left in the Islamic Republic, whom he refused to name.
But within minutes, officials in Iran said it was ‘fake news’ and a ‘phantom negotiation’ designed to manipulate the financial markets, and denied any direct talks with Washington.
Chillingly, a source told state-run Fars News Agency that Tehran had ‘special events’ planned for Israel and US allies in the region overnight ‘that will completely remove the hope of negotiations’.
On another dramatic day in the Middle East:
- President Trump’s Truth Social post and impromptu press conference saw stock markets steady and oil prices fall around the world, after fluctuating wildly;
- The aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford retreated to Crete to signal that Washington was serious about winding down Operation Epic Fury;
- Sir Keir Starmer said ‘this is not our war’ but warned that Britain must be ready for shocks from the conflict ‘for some time’;
- No 10 insisted that British forces ‘have the military capability’ to stop Iranian long-range missiles hitting our shores;
- HMS Dragon finally arrived in the eastern Mediterranean – more than three weeks after the RAF base on Cyprus was hit by an Iranian drone;
- Counter-terrorism police and the security services were examining whether an arson attack on four Jewish community ambulances in north London was linked to Tehran.
Donald Trump yesterday dramatically pulled back from the brink on his threat to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants
Iran unleashed a fresh wave of strikes on Israel overnight, with loud explosions heard over Jerusalem and missiles targeting Tel Aviv.
There were also reports of missiles being launched towards and intercepted in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
But the rest of the Middle East appeared to avoid a deadly barrage despite Iran’s threats.
There was a flurry of diplomacy last night as leaders around the world desperately tried to make sense of Mr Trump’s bombastic announcements.
They included a proposed ‘joint leadership’ with ‘me and the ayatollah’ controlling the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked to most tankers at a cost of 11million lost barrels of oil a day.
US peace envoys Mr Witkoff and Jared Kushner were reportedly trying to arrange a summit with the Iranian speaker of parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, in Islamabad this week.
Mr Witkoff was also said to have been involved in ‘intensive phone calls’ with Iran on Sunday, hosted by Egypt and involving Turkey, Qatar, and Pakistan as intermediaries.
While Mr Wiktoff has travelled to Pakistan according to The Times, there are no indications that any significant figure from the Islamic Republic will be joining him yet.
And Mr Ghalibaf said: ‘No negotiations whatsoever were held with the United States, and fake news is being used to manipulate the financial markets and oil markets and to escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are stuck.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he had spoken with his ‘friend’ Mr Trump, who ‘believes there is an opportunity to leverage the tremendous achievements we have reached’. But he said Israel would continue its strikes on Iran.
Sir Keir welcomed Mr Trump’s shift and told MPs on the Commons liaison committee: ‘We, the UK, were aware that that was happening, and the immediate priority has to be a swift resolution of the conflict and delivering a negotiated agreement which puts tough conditions on Iran, particularly in relation to nuclear weapons.’
Asked about President Trump’s repeated personal attacks on him, Sir Keir suggested it was a ‘pressure tactic’.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, has not been seen since the start of the war but could jointly run the strait with the US
Missiles launched by Iran streaked through Tel Aviv early on Tuesday morning after a fresh wave of Iranian strikes
The US President has mocked the Prime Minister as being ‘no Churchill’ and posted a comedy sketch at the weekend suggesting Sir Keir is afraid of him.
Sir Keir told MPs: ‘A lot of what is said and done is undoubtedly said and done to put pressure on me, I have no doubt about that. I understand exactly what is going on. But I am not going to be wavering on this… That has served me well in recent weeks.’
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘I welcome any de-escalation with President Trump’, before cautioning: ‘He can be quite unpredictable. You never know.’ But there was mounting concern from some Israelis.
Dan Illouz, a member of the Israeli parliament, told the Daily Mail: ‘Any agreement that spares this tyrannical regime merely pauses the clock for our next inevitable war.
‘True security for Israel, and genuine freedom for the Iranian people, will only come when this terror-driven leadership is completely dismantled.’
Announcing a five-day pause to energy strikes, Mr Trump said: ‘They called, I didn’t call, they called, they want to make a deal. And we are very willing to make a deal, [but] it’s got to be a good deal. We’ll see how that goes, and if it goes well we’re going to end up settling this.
‘Otherwise we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.’
The US President insisted he had had ‘very, very strong talks’ with ‘almost all points of agreement’, and saying they went ‘perfectly’. He said it would be a ‘good deal’ that brings ‘no more wars, no more nuclear weapons’, and claimed Iran was ‘agreeing to that’.
But he declined to say who he had been in talks with – describing them only as ‘very solid’ leaders in Iran.
Mr Trump said: ‘In all fairness, everybody’s been killed from the regime. They’re really starting off automatically with a regime change.
‘But we’re dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid. The people within know who they are, they’re very respected and maybe one of them is exactly what we’re looking for.’
Pressed on who he was talking to, Mr Trump said: ‘We are dealing with a man that I believe is the most respected and the leader.’
Asked if it was Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Supreme Leader who succeeded his father, Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war, Mr Trump said it was not.
Destruction at the Iranian ministry of defence’s electronics industries building in Tehran following a strike on Monday
Steve Witkoff is said to have arrived in Islamabad as hopes rise of a diplomatic end to the war
‘We have not heard from him,’ he said. ‘Nobody’s ever heard of the second supreme leader, the son. ‘Nobody. We have not heard from the son.
‘Every once in a while you see a statement made, but we don’t know if he’s living.’
Before departing for an event in Tennessee, during which he found time for a visit to Graceland – the home of Elvis Presley – Mr Trump hedged his bets: ‘We have a very serious chance of making a deal – that doesn’t guarantee anything. I’m not guaranteeing anything.’
He later added that Iran had ‘one more opportunity to end its threats’.
Mr Trump earlier said: ‘With Iran, we’ve been negotiating for a long time and this time they mean business. It’s only because of the good job of our military… they want to settle and we’re gonna get it done.’
Late on Monday night, the White House appeared to dampen down speculation about possible negotiations over the end of the war.
In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: ‘These are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the US will not negotiate through the press.
‘This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House.’
Meanwhile, a further 5,000 US Marines were headed to the region last night and would be in position by next Monday for a potential invasion of Iran’s strategically vital Kharg Island if talks fall through.
