Pakistan doesn't have press freedom: Vance on delay in releasing Iran deal terms
US Vice President JD Vance said the US delayed releasing the full text of its MoU with Iran partly because Pakistan and Qatar lack freedom of the press like America. Vance's remarks come as another major embarrassment for Pakistan.
There seems to be no end to embarrassment for Pakistan regarding the US-Iran peace deal, which it helped broker along with Qatar.
In a podcast, US Vice President JD Vance said the delay in releasing the details of its MoU with Iran was partly due to press freedom standards in Pakistan.
Even as US President Donald Trump announced the interim peace deal on June 15, the official text of the MoU was released two days later.
The US Vice President, speaking in the podcast 'Interesting Times with Ross Douthat', explained that Washington took time to release the details due to concerns over transparency.
"We actually wanted to get it out. I think part of the misalignment here is that in the Pakistani and Qatari systems, they don't quite have the First Amendment and freedom of the press," Vance said.
Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy and point man for West Asia, led the American negotiating team in back-channel talks with Iranian interlocutors. He played a central role in working out the framework deal and worked closely with Pakistani mediators to narrow differences between the two sides.
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a former senior White House adviser, was also part of the broader American effort in an informal role, using his West Asia contacts from Trump's first term to help the negotiations along with Witkoff and Vance.
On the Iranian side, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father as Iran's supreme leader, played a decisive but largely behind-the-scenes part in the peace talks.
He backed direct negotiations with the US and approved the memorandum of understanding, despite reservations, after receiving assurances that Iran's national interests and regional allies would be protected.
Pezeshkian emerged as the public face of Tehran's diplomatic push, guiding the negotiations through Iran's Supreme National Security Council and securing support from the country's top leadership before signing the memorandum with the US.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, was the de facto leader of Iran after the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28 until his own killing in mid-March in US-Israeli strikes.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi became one of Iran's most influential foreign policy voices during the conflict with the US.
He played a key role in managing Iran's ties with global powers, neighbouring countries and international institutions, and was Iran's main representative in discussions with Pakistan's mediating team. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, seen as a hardliner, was also a key figure and served as Iran's chief negotiator in the first direct talks with the US in decades, held in Islamabad in early April.
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