• Iranian envoy describes Islamabad’s efforts as “valuable”.
• Tehran transparent in its demands: Ambassador Moghadam.
• Says Washington must abandon its “aggressive posture”.
  

Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam on Sunday said Islamabad continues to serve as a central mediator in Iran’s negotiations with the United States.

“Pakistan remains a mediator, and no decision has been made to alter this,” the envoy said in an interview with an Iranian news agency, adding that progress in talks depends on a shift in Washington’s approach.

His comments came a day after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over the prospects of a new Iranian peace proposal.

Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported on Saturday that Tehran submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Islamabad.

Details included ending the conflict on all fronts and enacting a new framework for the crucial Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim said.

Ambassador Moghadam confirmed the same in today’s interview, saying Iran had conveyed a new negotiation plan to Washington via Pakistan.

He described Islamabad’s efforts in the negotiations process as “valuable” and central to the current diplomatic outreach.

Ambassador Moghadam maintained that Tehran was “transparent in its position and demands”, saying any meaningful progress was conditional on a change in US behaviour.

He stressed that Tehran would not compromise on its national interests or defence.

Talks between Iran and the US have remained stalled since the April 8 ceasefire, after a round of peace negotiations, held in Islamabad, failed to resolve the conflict.

The Pakistani government helped broker the ceasefire in the six-week conflict, which erupted after US and Israeli forces launched joint attacks on Iran on February 28.

The Middle East war has had a severe impact on the global economy after Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy shipping route.

Tehran briefly reopened the strait for commercial traffic but closed it again, citing US ceasefire violations and the continued naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Meanwhile, the Iranian ambassador said that the international community was observing Tehran’s “clear and logical stance”, while criticising what he described as inconsistency in US policy.

Reaffirming Iran’s commitment to diplomacy, he said that Washington must abandon its “aggressive posture” and respect Iran’s rights for negotiations to move forward.

Ambassador Moghadam also highlighted growing political, economic and trade ties between Pakistan and Iran, noting that border crossings between the two nations played a crucial role in bilateral trade and regional connectivity.

Two young women believed to be of Sudanese origin died Sunday while trying to reach Britain from northern France in a small boat, officials said.

The women, aged about 20, were aboard a small boat carrying 82 people, Christophe Marx, a regional government official, told reporters.

The boat set out to sea during the night from Saturday to Sunday, but “the engine wouldn’t start” and the boat began to drift, Marx said.

Seventeen people were rescued at sea and taken to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The boat with the remaining 65 people on board eventually ran aground on a beach near Neufchatel-Hardelot, about 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of Boulogne-sur-Mer, he said, adding that the victims had been found “dead inside the boat”.

Thirteen people with moderate injuries and three others with serious wounds, including burn victims, were taken to the hospital.

They were “being treated and will be interviewed by border police to determine who is responsible for this crossing”, Marx said.

He said an investigation would confirm the nationality of the victims. This is the third such tragedy in just over a month at the French-British border.

On April 1, two migrants died off the coast of Gravelines in northern France while attempting to reach the United Kingdom.

On April 9, two men and two women died, swept away by the currents.

In 2025, at least 29 migrants died at sea in the region, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources.

Britain and France last month signed a new three-year deal on security operations to stop the crossings.

France will increase the number of police and gendarmes patrolling the coast while the British government will increase its contribution to the cost.

According to French officials, the number of arrivals in Britain so far this year has been drastically cut from 2025.

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he will review a new Iranian peace proposal, but cast doubt over its prospects as he left open the possibility of future attacks on Iran.

Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with one round of peace talks to end the more than two-month war having failed in Pakistan.

The dour outlook came after Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported Tehran submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Islamabad. Details included ending the conflict on all fronts and enacting a new framework for the crucial Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim said.

“I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable, in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity and the World, over the last 47 years,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

In a brief interview with reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, he declined to specify what could trigger new military action against the Islamic republic.

“If they misbehave, if they do something bad, but right now, we´ll see,” he said. “But it’s a possibility that could happen, certainly.”

On Saturday, Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in the Iranian military’s central command, said “a renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely.”

“Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements,” he added, according to Fars news agency.

Deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi told diplomats in Tehran “the ball is in the United States’ court to choose the path of diplomacy or the continuation of a confrontational approach.”

Iran, he said, was “prepared for both paths.”

‘Hypocritical’

US news site Axios reported earlier in the week that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff had asked for Tehran’s nuclear program to be put back on the negotiating table.

Iran’s mission to the UN pointed to the massive US nuclear arsenal, accusing Washington on Saturday of “hypocritical behavior” towards Iran’s own atomic ambitions.

There was no legal “restriction on the level of uranium enrichment, so long as it is conducted under the IAEA’s supervision, as was the case with Iran,” it said, using the abbreviation for the UN nuclear watchdog.

Iran has maintained a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz since the war began, choking off major flows of oil, gas and fertiliser to the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

Oil prices are about 50 percent above pre-war levels.

The vice speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Nikzad, said that under draft legislation being considered for managing the waterway, 30 percent of tolls collected would go towards military infrastructure, with the rest earmarked for “economic development.”

“Managing the Strait of Hormuz is more important than acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said.

Fighting meanwhile continued Saturday in Lebanon, where Israel has carried out deadly strikes despite a separate truce with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said it had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon following evacuation warnings for nine villages.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported three deaths in the attacks.

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed several attacks targeting Israeli troops.

The Israeli strikes included one in the village of Yaroun on what its military called a “religious building,” which was damaged.

The French Catholic charity L’Oeuvre d’Orient said the troops had “destroyed” a convent belonging to the Salvatorian Sisters, a Greek-Catholic religious order with which the charity is affiliated.

Iran’s economic toll

In Washington, lawmakers were wrestling over whether Trump had breached a deadline to seek congressional approval for the war.

Administration officials argue the ceasefire paused a 60-day clock, after which congressional authorisation would be required — a claim disputed by opposition Democrats.

In Iran, the war’s economic toll is deepening, with oil exports crimped and inflation surging past 50 percent.

“Everyone is trying to endure it, but… they are falling apart,” 40-year-old Amir, a Tehran resident, told an AFP reporter based outside the country.

“We still have not seen much of the economic effects because everyone had a bit of savings. They had some gold and dollars for a rainy day. When they run out, things will change.”