Pezeshkian Heads to Pakistan to Cement US-Iran Deal
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- Masoud Pezeshkian arrives in Islamabad a day after Pakistan and Qatar announced that US-Iran talks in Burgenstock, Switzerland produced a 60-day roadmap towards a final deal, with analysts telling Al Jazeera the visit is about converting a fragile MoU into durable political cover.
- Pezeshkian is expected to meet PM Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated the Switzerland talks, along with President Asif Ali Zardari and other senior officials, with discussions covering the US-Iran track plus trade, energy, border security, and regional connectivity.
- The June 18 MoU was signed by Trump and Pezeshkian with Sharif signing as mediator, and the Burgenstock round produced a high-level political committee, nuclear and sanctions working groups, a Strait of Hormuz communication line, and a Lebanon de-confliction mechanism.
- Pezeshkian's first post-war foreign trip in June 2025 — also to Pakistan — produced 12 bilateral agreements and a $10bn annual trade target, up from roughly $3bn, underscoring the relationship's deepening despite a January 2024 missile exchange between the two neighbours.
- Iran has already been allowed to export oil to world markets for 60 days as part of the deal, former Pakistani ambassador Asif Durrani told Al Jazeera, calling sanctions relief the 'bigger prize' alongside nuclear compliance.
- Sharif and Pezeshkian have spoken by phone at least seven times since the February 28 US-Israel strikes, and Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir has travelled to Tehran twice as part of mediation efforts that analysts say elevate Pakistan from message-facilitator to recognised regional mediator.
- Pezeshkian's visit carries domestic weight, analyst Reza Khanzadeh said: it lets him show 'that diplomacy is not capitulation, that Iran is engaging from a position of sovereignty, with regional partners, and not simply responding to American pressure.'
Why it matters: Pezeshkian is converting a 60-day technical roadmap into political legitimacy — at home against hardliners who sank the 2015 JCPOA, and regionally by anointing Pakistan as a recognised mediator rather than a back-channel. For Tehran, the immediate win is 60 days of unrestricted oil exports; for Islamabad, Sharif gains diplomatic stature heading into a fragile negotiation window that could collapse if the US cannot constrain Israel on Lebanon.
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