KABUL (Pajhwok): A Qatari negotiating team has reportedly arrived in Tehran to help facilitate a possible agreement between Iran and the United States aimed at reducing tensions, according to media reports.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the team arrived in Tehran on Friday in coordination with the United States, with the aim of helping secure a deal and resolving outstanding issues with Iran.
Reuters quoted the source as saying: “A Qatari negotiating team is in Tehran on Friday, adding the team had travelled in coordination with the United States and was there to help reach a final deal that would end the conflict and address outstanding issues with Iran.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted some progress on Thursday, saying: “There are some good signs. I don’t want to be overly optimistic. So, let’s see what happens over the next few days.”
Asked on Friday about the Qatari team’s presence in Iran, Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Sweden that Pakistan was the primary interlocutor in the Iran talks and had done an “admirable job.”
He added: “Obviously, other countries also have interests, especially Gulf countries that are in the middle of all this. They have their own situation. We are in contact with all of them. I would just say the primary country we have been working with on all of this is Pakistan, and that remains the case.”
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian source told Reuters on Thursday that no deal has been reached yet, but gaps have narrowed, with Iran’s uranium enrichment and its control over the Strait remaining among the key sticking points.
This comes after Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited Tehran on Wednesday (20 May) for talks with Iranian officials.
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