TEHRAN.- The foreign minister of the Taliban’s de facto government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, applauded this Wednesday the diplomatic rapprochement between Tehran and Washington in a call with his Iranian counterpart, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, thus marking the Taliban’s first approach to peace talks.
As reported by the Afghan Foreign Ministry, Araghchi reported on the “latest status of negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the United States,” while Muttaqi emphasized the importance of resolving problems through negotiation.
Muttaqi “considered the diplomatic approach taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America as a constructive step,” the official statement stated.
The Taliban foreign minister, who was key in the negotiations between the Taliban and the Government of Donald Trump to sign the 2020 Doha Agreements, thus supported the diplomatic channel that is currently stalled in neighboring Islamabad.
Pakistan, the official mediator of the conflict, today celebrates its fourth day of security closure in the capital awaiting a second round of contacts that has not materialized after Iran’s refusal to negotiate under military pressure.
Iran intercepts two ships in Hormuz
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, said Wednesday that its naval forces intercepted two ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and took them into the Islamic republic’s territorial waters.
“The naval force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps identified and detained two offending ships this morning in the Strait of Hormuz,” the ideological army said in a statement.
“The two offending ships (…) were seized by the IRGC and directed to the Iranian coast,” he added.
They identified one ship as “MSC-FRANCESCA”, which they said belonged “to the Zionist regime” in reference to Israel, and the other as “EPAMINONDAS”, alleging that it “altered navigation systems and endangered maritime security.”
The Guardians also warned against any action contrary to the rules of the Islamic republic in the strait, “as well as against any activity that harms the safety of navigation” in this sea lane.
According to Tehran, ships must obtain authorization to leave or enter the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a route through which, in peacetime, a fifth of the world’s exports of oil and gas, as well as other essential raw materials, transit.
Longer
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Tuesday that, at the request of Pakistan, he has decided to extend the ceasefire that was due to expire on Wednesday until Iran presents an agreement proposal.
“I have ordered our Armed Forces to maintain the blockade and, in all other respects, remain prepared and operational, and, consequently, I will extend the ceasefire until your proposal is presented and negotiations are concluded, whatever the result,” he announced on his social networks.
The tenant of the White House has made this decision at the request of the Pakistani authorities, as he indicated, so that the Government of Iran, of which he has said thatis “severely divided”can “present a unified proposal” to the talks planned in Islamabad.
Trump assured on his Truth Social platform that the decision was made “from the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured, which is not surprising.”
Pakistan in the middle
Amid the tensions, Pakistan has continued the mediation work that allowed for a first round of negotiations on April 11 and 12, and which marked the first high-level contact between Tehran and Washington in 47 years.
After the start of hostilities between Iran and the US on February 28, the de facto Taliban government condemned the US attacks and came to discuss the situation with the Iranian Executive on March 2.
