Steve Witkoff

Pakistan's effort involved direct contact with top officials on all sides, with a Pakistani source saying the hardest part of the process was convincing Iran to accept a truce without preconditions.

According to IRNA, Iran is demanding a complete end to the fighting in the region, along with a protocol to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Egypt pushed fresh de-escalation efforts on Sunday, with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty holding calls with US envoy Steve Witkoff, Iran’s Abbas Araghchi, and other regional officials.

According to a Reuters source, US President Donald Trump and top White House officials have been told via interlocutors that Iran's counter-proposal would likely arrive on Friday.

NATIONAL AFFAIRS: The month-long war now under way has done more than degrade Iran’s air defenses and cripple parts of its military-industrial complex - it has upended the diplomatic cast.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Dar said Pakistan remains fully committed to promoting peace and is making all possible efforts to ensure stability in the region and beyond

“We’ll see if we can make the right deal. We’ll see if they want to do it,” he said. “In the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away unimpeded.”

"Once Trump takes ownership of the protest, everyone is waiting for his command. They're sitting at home hungry and thirsty,” said an Iran researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies.

A source told The Jerusalem Post that Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf has been leading the talks with the US.

Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf is leading the talks with the United States, a source told The Jerusalem Post.