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Iran tells Pakistan's Asim Munir there will be no US talks until its terms are met
On his fifth trip to Tehran since the war began, Pakistan's army chief heard a harder line from Iran's leaders, who said Washington must first meet seven conditions.
Key points
- Field Marshal Asim Munir met President Masoud Pezeshkian and other top Iranian leaders in Tehran on Tuesday.
- Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the US must meet seven conditions before trust can return.
- Security chief Mohsen Rezaei said enriched nuclear material will stay in Iran.
Iran has told Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, that it will not sit down with the United States until Washington meets its demands, a firmer line delivered as Islamabad tries to head off a new round of fighting.
Munir, who is also Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. It was his fifth visit to Iran since the US and Israel attacked the country on 28 February, and his first since September.
What Iran’s leaders said
Munir met President Masoud Pezeshkian, who discussed Pakistan’s mediation and the wider region with him, according to Iranian state media. He also met Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Iran’s side in the Pakistan-brokered talks with the US in April, and security chief Major General Mohsen Rezaei.
Ghalibaf told Munir that US violations of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding and repeated threats had further eroded Iran’s trust. Washington could not win that trust back, he said, until it met the seven conditions Tehran set out in New York last month for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Rezaei said all of Iran’s enriched nuclear material would remain in the country as a national asset, repeating the position of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei that near-weapons-grade uranium should not be shipped abroad. There would be no negotiations, he said, until the US built trust by meeting Iran’s terms.
Iran’s demands include an end to the US naval blockade of its ports, the lifting of sanctions on its oil exports, an end to hostilities on all regional fronts and keeping enriched material inside Iran.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the main aim of Munir’s visit was “to strengthen bilateral relations and mutual cooperation”. Munir was also expected to meet Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Pakistan’s place in the talks
Pakistan has been the main go-between since the war began. Its mediation led to a ceasefire on 8 April and a 14-point memorandum in June under which the US was to lift its blockade, Hormuz was to reopen and frozen Iranian assets were to be released in phases. That deal lapsed in mid-August, and Iran has kept the strait shut since, saying the US failed to keep its side.
Washington’s position remains far apart. US Vice President JD Vance said earlier this month that Iran must make a “meaningful” cut in its uranium enrichment capacity to end the war, now nearly eight months old.
Tehran’s busy week
Munir’s trip followed a visit to Tehran on Monday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and came as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced stop in Israel to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
US President Donald Trump has said the US will not attack Iran before the 3 November midterm elections, though the naval blockade stays in place. Israel votes on 27 October. Pakistan had not commented on the outcome of Munir’s meetings by late Tuesday.