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Following talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad over the weekend, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that \u201cfull efforts\u201d were ongoing to resolve the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, the ceasefire still stands. As I am talking to you, matters that are not resolved, full efforts are underway to resolve them,\u201d he said in a televised address to the federal cabinet.<\/p>\n In his first remarks on the matter after the negotiations concluded, the premier hailed talks between the two countries in Islamabad as a \u201chistoric moment\u201d.<\/p>\n He said the Islamabad Talks gave Pakistan a chance to \u201cturn looming clouds of war into lasting peace\u201d.<\/p>\n PM Shehbaz added that \u201cif you look through history \u2014 take the Oslo Agreement, the Geneva Accord, the Good Friday Agreement \u2026 it took months and sometimes years to end hostilities and establish peace\u201d.<\/p>\n Coming to the Islamabad Talks, he said that the Iranian and American delegations had negotiated \u201ccontinuously for 21 hours\u201d.<\/p>\n The dialogue, he said, was not held indirectly. \u201cIt was the first time that the two delegations sat face-to-face. I am a witness to it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Pakistan\u2019s leadership had worked hard day and night to bring the two sides to the table. \u201cAnd it is a result of Pakistan\u2019s sincere efforts that the ceasefire still holds,\u201d he said, adding that full efforts were being made to resolve unresolved matters.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is why I believe that the Islamabad peace talks were a historic event,\u201d he said, further mentioning that he had received a call from his Japanese counterpart on Monday. \u201cShe congratulated me on Pakistan playing an important role\u201d in efforts for de-escalation between the US and Iran, the PM said.<\/p>\n Moreover, he said he had also received phone calls from European leaders, who commended Pakistan\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n PM Shehbaz particularly lauded Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, as well as their teams, for their contributions to de-escalation.<\/p>\n He said it was because of the CDF and his team\u2019s \u201cwisdom\u201d that Pakistan was able to broker a two-week ceasefire<\/a> between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n The premier said he was responsible for ensuring that \u201cnational secrets\u201d were not revealed. \u201cSo, those secrets are buried in my heart. But, I can tell you this much that \u2026 the Field Marshal and his team spent sleepless nights. And there were moments when matters were close to falling apart, but then they were resolved,\u201d he detailed.<\/p>\n PM Shehbaz said that after the talks, the US and Iranian delegations had issued separate statements, but they had commonalities.<\/p>\n Both sides expressed gratitude to Pakistan for hosting the talks and lauded Pakistan\u2019s political and military leadership \u201cfor playing a brotherly role, he said.<\/p>\n The premier said God had given Pakistan the opportunity to mediate between the two sides that \u201cwere not ready even to see each other for 47 years\u201d.<\/p>\n PM Shehbaz\u2019s briefing came a day after the inaugural round of direct Iran-US dialogue<\/a>, mediated by Pakistan, concluded after nearly 21 hours of talks without a breakthrough. However, officials indicated that the process had not collapsed and could continue.<\/p>\n The talks, the highest-level face-to-face engagement between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, were held in multiple formats<\/a>, including expert-level discussions, under the facilitation of Dar and CDF Munir.<\/p>\n They were held more than a month after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, setting off a conflict that gave rise to a global fuel crisis.<\/p>\n The threats of the war prolonging and intensifying had escalated on April 5, when Trump, after making an expletive-laden post<\/u><\/a>, issued an unusually precise deadline for Iran<\/u><\/a> to agree to a ceasefire deal with Washington and allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a key maritime corridor through which 20pc of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the Middle East war began.<\/p>\n \u201cTuesday (April 7), 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time,\u201d he wrote, coupled with the warning of bombing Iran\u2019s power plants and bridges on that day, increasing pressure to prevent a worsening situation.<\/p>\n On the day of his deadline, Trump doubled down on his threats against Iran, alarming the world.<\/p>\n \u201cA whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back,\u201d he wrote, prompting backlash<\/u><\/a> from even within his country.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n