As peace talks between the US and Iran ended without a deal in Islamabad, world figures urged both countries to keep negotiating to end the war in the Middle East.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that he was ready to help mediate efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East, the Kremlin said. “Vladimir Putin emphasised his readiness to further facilitate the search for a political and diplomatic settlement to the conflict, and to mediate efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said in its readout of the call.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a deal with the US is “not out of reach” if the Trump administration abides by international law, the country’s state broadcaster reported. UK health minister Wes Streeting said: “It’s obviously disappointing that we haven’t yet seen a breakthrough in negotiations and an end to this war in Iran that is a sustainable one.”
“As ever in diplomacy, you´re failing until you succeed. So while these talks may not have ended in success, [it] doesn’t mean there isn´t merit in continuing to try,” he added. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that the “priority now must be to continue the ceasefire and return to negotiations,” adding it was “disappointing that the Islamabad talks between the United States and Iran have ended without agreement”.
Meanwhile, Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, says the Islamabad Talks laid the foundation for a diplomatic process that, if trust and will are strengthened, can create a sustainable framework for the interests of all parties. In a social post on X, Moghadam says that the Islamabad Talks are “not an event but a process.”
“The Iranian high ranking negotiating team, with dignity, self-confidence and faith in Allah Almighty and attention to the concerns of the people, pursued dignified talks for the great Iranian nation to ensure and secure the national interests and legitimate rights of the people.”
Separately, Defence and foreign policy specialist Mushahid Hussain Syed says negotiations between the US and Iran have yielded some positive results despite talks in Pakistan having failed to secure an end to the war.
“There are two positives. One is that the ceasefire is holding,” Syed, who is also the former information minister of Pakistan, told Al Jazeera from Islamabad. “The second is that both parties have in their statements kept a window open.”
He said the fact that US officials and their Iranian counterparts were “talking to each other in a reasonably cordial atmosphere” while in Islamabad was a sign of progress. “There was a lot that was achieved, but the clincher isn’t there yet.”
Syed added that Netanyahu is “the real warmonger” because he has been “pushing the US into continuing this war of aggression unnecessarily”.