Iranian interior minister meets PM Shehbaz in Islamabad

Iran’s interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, held a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the PM House in Islamabad on Tuesday.

According to an X post by the PM’s Office (PMO), the meeting between the two has commenced. The statement did not have any more details about the meeting.

Momeni arrived in Pakistan on an official visit on Monday night and was received by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Islamabad. He is accompanied by a high-level delegation.

State-run Pakistan TV reported that he would also meet Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir during the visit.

Earlier reports had suggested that Momeni was likely to engage with Pakistani officials who previously mediated a now-collapsed interim ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Momeni’s visit comes as mediator Pakistan continues its diplomatic efforts to rescue the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last month between the US and Iran, intending to end the war between the two sides that began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran in late February.

But hostilities resumed soon, with the US carrying out strikes in Iran for the 10th consecutive day on Tuesday, following which Iran targeted US radar and air defence installations in the Gulf.

After US President Donald Trump’s remarks earlier this month that the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was “over”, his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian also said on Monday that they were fighting a “full-scale war”. Tehran has blamed Washington for breaching the MoU.

More to follow