Hours after meeting Oman’s Sultan in Muscat and a day after leaving Islamabad empty-handed, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has returned to the Pakistani capital. His arrival — confirmed by both CNN and Iran’s official state news agency — is the clearest signal yet that the diplomatic track has not collapsed, even if it is deeply stalled.
The Confirmed Arrival
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has landed in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, having recently departed from Oman, according to Iran’s official state news agency IRNA. Upon his arrival at Nur Khan airbase on the outskirts of Islamabad, Araghchi was received by Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistan’s interior minister, and Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Islamabad, IRNA reported on Sunday. Araghchi is expected to hold another round of regional consultations with Pakistani officials, IRNA said.
Nur Khan airbase is the Pakistani military installation used for sensitive diplomatic arrivals — the same facility used during round one. His reception by the Interior Minister rather than the Foreign Minister suggests a lower-profile arrival, consistent with the more discreet format of this phase of talks compared to the publicly announced Islamabad round one.
What His Team Is Bringing From Tehran
After a short stopover in Pakistan, he will then travel to Moscow, Russia, according to an Iranian source. The foreign minister’s private plane also took off from Tehran and is due to land soon at Nur Khan Air Base, according to the source.
The plane from Tehran carrying the rest of his delegation — the officials who flew back to consult with Iran’s National Security Council — is inbound simultaneously. Those officials have spent the intervening hours in direct consultation with the bodies that have authority over Iran’s negotiating position. What they carry back to Islamabad tonight represents the most current version of Tehran’s instructions.
The Oman Meeting This Morning
Before returning to Islamabad, Araghchi held a formal meeting with the Sultan of Oman at the al-Baraka Palace in Muscat. Araghchi thanked Oman for its diplomatic efforts and warned US military presence in the region was causing “insecurity and division.” He reiterated Tehran’s commitment “to safeguard friendly relations with Oman” and other countries in the southern Persian Gulf.
In talks with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Araghchi discussed security in the Strait of Hormuz and broader Gulf waters and diplomatic efforts to end the Iran-US conflict. Araghchi said the US military presence in the Middle East was fuelling insecurity and division and called for a regional security framework free of outside interference.
The Oman leg served two purposes: it gave Araghchi direct royal-level endorsement for Iran’s diplomatic engagement, and it activated the Omani back channel to Washington — the same channel that has carried the most sensitive messages between the two sides since before the war began.
Iran’s President’s Warning
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone on Saturday that Tehran would not enter “imposed negotiations” under threats or blockade. Pezeshkian warned that Iran would not accede to “forced negotiations” with the US, citing “hostile actions.”
The President’s warning and the Foreign Minister’s return to Islamabad are not contradictory — they are the two faces of Iranian diplomacy. Publicly, Iran refuses to negotiate under coercion. Operationally, it keeps its diplomats moving. Araghchi’s return tonight is the operational reality. Pezeshkian’s statement is the political cover that allows it.
