WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar at the State Department in Washington on Friday, as negotiations aimed at ending the war with Iran dragged on and President Donald Trump said he was making a “final” decision on whether to strike a peace deal with Tehran.
The meeting with Dar — whose country is acting as mediator between the United States and Iran — came days after Rubio’s visit to India, Pakistan’s historic rival.
The two officials did not address the press.
Meanwhile, Trump said Friday he was now making a “final” decision on whether or not to strike a peace deal with Iran.
“I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination,” he said in a lengthy social media post, stressing that Iran must agree never to have nuclear weapons and to open the Hormuz shipping lanes.
In the post, Trump said Iran “will complete the immediate removal” of mines in the Strait of Hormuz and that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports “will now be lifted,” allowing oil and other tankers to start moving.
However, it was not clear if Iran had agreed to this or whether the US blockade had actually been lifted ahead of Trump’s decision.
Trump also specified that enriched uranium stockpiles in Iran “will be unearthed by the United States... in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”
Following reports that Iran had demanded financial compensation for the war and that the White House had floated the idea of investments, Trump said “no money will be exchanged, until further notice.”
The US president added that only “items, of far less importance, have been agreed to.”
The developments came as US officials voiced optimism about the direction of diplomacy.
Vice President JD Vance said late Thursday that progress had been made toward an agreement between the United States and Iran.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MOU,” Vance told reporters on Thursday. “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points. We’ve made a lot of progress here.”
But Iran’s top negotiator struck a more cautious tone on Friday.
“We place no trust in guarantees or words; only actions matter. No step will be taken before the other side acts first,” Iran’s Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X.
The parliament speaker, who led Tehran’s delegation at peace talks with the United States in Pakistan last month, also warned that Iran had gained leverage not “through talks, but through missiles” fired at US bases and allies in the region when war broke out on February 28.
On Friday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source, said the text of a potential memorandum of understanding had not yet been finalized and that its wording had “undergone some changes in recent days.”
Energy markets have whipsawed this week as investors parsed the chances of an agreement that could potentially resume normal shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The potential deal would end restrictions on shipping through the strait, with no tolls or harassment, while Tehran would remove mines within 30 days and the United States would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports if commercial traffic resumed, according to US media reports.
But Iran has not confirmed any commitments to a deal, and sources have told Iranian media that any agreement unilaterally announced by Trump would not be recognized.
