Iran Sends Interior Minister to Pakistan Seeking Ceasefire Talks as Strikes Hit 10th Day, Trump Says No Interest

Iran Goes Looking for a Way Out

Since the interim ceasefire between Washington and Tehran fell apart earlier this month, the two countries have now exchanged attacks for 10 straight days. Iran blinked first on diplomacy this week. Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni flew to Pakistan on Monday night and spent Tuesday meeting with Pakistani officials trying to find a path back to the table.

Momeni met privately with Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, before sitting down with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to two unnamed officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the talks were closed-door. Momeni posted about the Sharif meeting on social media but gave almost no substance, according to Breitbart, mostly offering pleasantries and condolences over the funeral of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which Sharif had attended in Tehran.

Sharif's office put out a statement afterward saying the prime minister voiced "deep concern over the recent escalation in the Gulf region" and urged "all sides to exercise restraint." Pakistan says it intends to keep acting as "an honest and sincere mediator and facilitator," per that same statement. Momeni told reporters upon arrival that he also wanted to discuss economic cooperation and trade across the 560-mile Iran-Pakistan border, though the timing makes clear the ceasefire push was the real point of the trip.

Field Marshal Munir has been Pakistan's lead diplomatic actor pushing this effort, and Breitbart notes he has built a working relationship with President Trump, which is presumably why Pakistan thinks it can broker something. Pakistan may also be the unnamed mediator that reportedly floated a 10-day ceasefire proposal to Iran on Monday, though that has not been confirmed on the record by any government.

Trump's Answer: Not Yet

Trump was blunt about it from the Oval Office on Tuesday. "They want to desperately meet because they're getting decimated," he said, adding, "until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest."

Trump is saying Iran is losing and using diplomacy as a pressure valve rather than negotiating in good faith. Whether that reading is right is impossible to independently verify. It lines up with the fact that even as Momeni was shuttling around Islamabad, Iran was still attacking a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday, forcing the crew to abandon ship, according to the Associated Press.

The Strait Is Still Effectively Closed

Ten straight nights of U.S. airstrikes have not gotten Iran to loosen its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carried about one-fifth of the world's crude oil and natural gas before the war, according to the AP. Shipping through it has largely stalled. Both countries have increasingly hit civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people in the region, the AP reported, without Iran giving any public indication it plans to back off.

Sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait on Tuesday afternoon warning of incoming projectiles, per the AP. That comes on top of Iran's now four-day run of strikes on Kuwait's water and power infrastructure reported earlier this week.

The State Department issued a fresh warning this week that Iran and Iran-aligned groups "may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world," according to Türkiye Today's report on the department's statement.

A New Front in the Red Sea

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have opened another pressure point, declaring a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, according to the AP. Saudi Arabia has been routing oil through a pipeline to the Red Sea to get around the closed Strait of Hormuz, which makes a Houthi blockade there a direct hit on the kingdom's remaining export options.

SABA, the Houthi-run news agency in Yemen, claimed Tuesday that six ships in the Red Sea were forced to reroute after warnings from the rebel group, though the AP said it could not independently confirm that claim. Three Houthi officials, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to talk to press, said the group had warned international shipping companies on Monday to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the chokepoint at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula leading into the Red Sea.

Prices Climbing, Public Souring

Brent crude traded near $90 a barrel Tuesday, and U.S. regular gasoline has climbed to roughly $4 a gallon, according to the AP. With midterm elections approaching in the fall, the AP reported that polling shows the war is unpopular with Americans who are feeling the price pain and watching new casualties pile up in a conflict that appeared to be winding down just weeks ago.

Some off-ramp may be worked on behind the scenes, given the domestic political pressure and Pakistan's active shuttle diplomacy. But nothing concrete has emerged. No new ceasefire framework has been announced by either government, and Trump's own comments Tuesday suggest Washington sees no urgency to sign one until Iran offers something more than a meeting request.