Ghalibaf, Araghchi set to visit Pakistan as Iran-US tensions persist

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi are set to visit Pakistan, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said at a press conference in Tehran on August 10, AzerNEWS reports.

"Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi have been invited to Pakistan. The visits will take place when conditions are appropriate. The main focus of these visits will be bilateral relations," Baghaei stated.

He described relations between Iran and Pakistan as highly important, noting that mutual visits by officials of the two countries, which maintain close and developing ties, are natural. According to him, several Iranian ministers had visited Pakistan over the past 10 days.

The spokesperson also noted that the United States and Israel launched military airstrikes against Iran on February 28 after no concrete progress was achieved in negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran subsequently launched missile and drone attacks against Israel and U.S. targets in the region.

With Pakistan’s mediation, the two sides reached a ceasefire agreement on April 7.

On June 18, Iran and the United States signed a peace memorandum. The memorandum was signed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and U.S. President Donald Trump and entered into force on June 19.

It should be recalled that tensions between the United States and Iran escalated again on July 8. On that day, U.S. forces carried out several waves of strikes on Iranian territory, reportedly in response to an attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes marked the first U.S. military action against Iran since the memorandum was signed between Washington and Tehran.

On the same day, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the ceasefire with Iran had been terminated.

In response, Tehran began launching strikes against U.S. facilities located in Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.