“Cannot say whether they are sitting in the same room" ::::: Pakistan source says : Iran-US Talks begin ::: Three-way talks between JD Vance-led team, Iran’s Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi and Pak army chief Asim Munir

 ZZZ 

Snaps conceal more than they reveal  

 

In this photo released by the Pakistan prime minister office, Iranian delegation led by Iran’s Speaker Ghalibaf, third left, meet with Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif, in Islamabad, April 11

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A Pakistani official has confirmed to the Associated Press that negotiations have officially begun between the US and Iran in Pakistan. The official told the AP that they “cannot say whether they are sitting in the same room 

or in separate rooms, but talks have started and are progressing well.”

(Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif meets with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as delegations from the US and Iran hold peace talks, in Islamabad, Pakistan )

The three-way talks are between US officials JD Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Iran’s Mohammad Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir.

Amid Pakistan's shuffling between rooms, it seems the Americans and Iranians have seen points in their respective proposals they think they can make progress on.

What success will look like depends on who you ask. This war has sent global oil prices soaring, caused extensive damage to energy infrastructure in the Middle East, and thousands of people have been killed.

Many would breathe a sigh of relief if an extended ceasefire and an eventual peace agreement is delivered.

Iranians who have lived through years of sanctions may hope there will be respite for the economy. 

"But some of the Iranians I've spoken to inside the country, even those who have fled their homes in fear, are afraid of an Iran led by the regime's new leaders, who they say are more hardline than before," 

writes BBC's Azadeh Moshiri South Asia correspondent, in Islamabad  

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"Pakistan will face a potential 'nightmare scenario' if negotiations collapse, and it gets dragged into fighting with its neighbour Iran," Abdul Basit, a South Asia expert, told the BBC. Basit also said that Pakistan would get involved in the Middle East because of its mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had signed a mutual defence pact in September last year. The message of the agreement read, "Any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both." However, Pakistan didn't join the Iran war even though its defence pact ally, Saudi Arabia, was hit by Iran as retaliation.