ISLAMABAD, SEPT 1: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday stressed the need to implement the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United States and Iran, saying it was the only way forward to resolve their dispute.
DPM Dar made the remarks during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
DPM Dar arrived a day ago in Bishkek to join Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is on a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan to attend SCO meetings and hold bilateral talks with the country’s top leadership.
During the meeting, DPM Dar and Araghchi exchanged views on bilateral relations and regional developments and reaffirmed the importance of continued engagement, the FO said.
“The DPM/FM underscored that dialogue and diplomacy remain essential to promoting peace and stability in the region, and that sincere implementation by both parties to the conflict of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding of June 2026 remains the only way forward,” it added.
DPM Dar also met with China’s FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of the SCO meeting in Bishkek.
Pakistan emerged as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington in efforts to end the conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Islamabad brokered a two-week ceasefire between the two sides on April 8, bringing six weeks of fighting to a temporary halt, and has since continued to relay messages between Washington and Tehran.
Tehran and Washington reached a 14-point interim agreement, titled the “Islamabad MoU”, on June 18, aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in the Middle East.
Since then, Islamabad has repeatedly committed to play its role in bridging differences between Washington and Tehran and work for a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and de-escalation.
Renewed hostilities
DPM Dar’s statement comes amid renewed escalation in the Middle East, with the US and Iran engaged in tit-for-tat attacks.
Iran said on Monday it attacked US military targets in Jordan in retaliation for the first American strikes on its territory in a month, marking a fresh flare-up in the six-month war.
Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck two US military air bases with ballistic missiles in Washington-allied Jordan, causing “heavy damage.”
Iran’s army also claimed it attacked the United Arab Emirates’ Al Minhad Air Base with drones early on Monday, Iranian state TV reported, citing a statement from the army.
The strikes came after the United States said on August 30 it had attacked Iranian rocket launchers on a small island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Washington said its attacks were aimed at preventing Iran from launching more sea mines into the strait, days after it announced it had completed clearing explosives from the strategic waterway.
The Iran Guards said the US strikes resulted in “casualties” and that their subsequent attack on Jordan was “in response to the US-Zionist aerial aggression.”
The exchange of fire came shortly after the US-Iran war hit the six-month mark, and at a time when the US administration has prioritised “economic warfare” over military strikes on Iran.
