Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says the document will not be signed on Sunday, but he does not rule out that it could happen in the “coming days”. Aljazeera reported.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been confident in the last 24 hours about a deal being reached; we’ve heard from him twice in that time. He is saying we’re very close to it, you’ve all agreed on it, so rather than wasting the opportunity and figuring out who is going to go where, let’s sign it electronically, let’s put a pin in it, let’s commit to those 30 or 60 days as have been floated in the media.
The Pakistanis know they’ve been here so many times, and this is the point where it makes or breaks it, and they want it to be done as soon as possible. The urgency is to get to the next hurdle, which is to get a commitment for the next 30 to 60 days, get the Strait of Hormuz open, release Iranian assets and get the Iranians to agree to a 15-year period of no nuclear enrichment.
And then, those really bare-knuckle, rolled-sleeves talks can happen. It could be in [the Swiss city of] Geneva, it could be in Islamabad, or it could very well be at the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] with headquarters in Vienna, [Austria], because a lot hinges on what happens on the nuclear front. And this is why it’s important to get the first bit out of the way.
The Pakistani position is different from that of everyone else. They’ve got the backing of the Egyptians, the Turks and the Saudis. They’ve got an open door of communication with China, and apparently, the army chief can pick up the phone and call the White House whenever he wants.
At least five people have been killed in separate Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, despite the progress in Iran-US talks.
Iran’s state media says the funeral for Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to begin on July 4 in Tehran, with the burial to take place on July 9 in Mashhad.
