Iranian state television on Tuesday issued an on-screen alert saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad ... so far” as speculation about possible talks with the United States grows.
The on-screen alert likely reflects the internal debate ongoing within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.
Iranian state TV has long been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy.
So far, no official has acknowledged that a delegation will be heading to Islamabad, where officials have been on standby for days now for the possible talks.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead an American team to the talks. Iran has offered no word on who could lead its delegation. Last time, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf led the Iranian side.
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There’s been no public discussion in Iran about how to resume talks. There has been pushback from extreme hard-liners in Iran in recent days over resuming talks, particularly after the ship attack.
There had been at least one online push for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to issue a public proclamation about backing further negotiations or not — but the new Iranian leader hasn't issued any statement, nor has he been seen in any image since the war, as Israeli and U.S. officials say he had been wounded in the conflict.
That has put Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard likely in the driver’s seat of governing the Islamic Republic. The Guard’s forces had been key in the war and largely operated without oversight from Tehran in choosing targets.
Iran’s civilian leadership has broadly been quiet, particularly after Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote online this weekend that the strait had been opened, only for that to be later denied by others in Tehran.
Iran has throttled traffic through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open seas, since shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war. The U.S. has also instituted a blockade of Iranian ports in response to pressure from Tehran.
