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US personnel from an advance delegation sent to Islamabad on April 19 were still in the Pakistani capital as of Wednesday night, The National has been told, suggesting Washington has not entirely written off the possibility of talks with Iran resuming imminently.
It is a small but hopeful detail amid a diplomatic picture that, on the surface, looks bleak. Pakistan's government has barely hidden its disappointment that the second round of talks has failed to materialise.
But the breathing space provided by a lack of momentum has also afforded officialdom and the policy community here in Islamabad time to reflect on what may have led to this point.
Publicly, officials are careful to present their country as a dispassionate, neutral mediator. Privately, some express frustration with US President Donald Trump's “threatening” social media posts against Iran, as well as the US blockade of Iranian ports.
These things, they say, are not helpful to the process. There is also criticism of the Iranian approach, but it is noticeably less pointed, alluding to Iran's desire to “save face” and “fractures” within the regime – observations Mr Trump has made himself in recent social media posts.
Pakistan became a mediator in this peace process by virtue of its positive relations with both Iran and the US. But analysts say these relationships are very different. Ties with the US have been complex and up and down over the decades but, for the most part, they are visible on the surface. The two countries have a history of airing grievances publicly.
In contrast, most of the complexity in the relationship with Tehran is beneath the surface. This is a matter of practicality, since so much of it relies on maintaining functional ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an opaque organisation and Iran’s main power centre.
The broader US-Iran ceasefire is also a muddled picture. When Mr Trump announced this week that the ceasefire would be extended, he declined to say for how long. The US and Israel have not resumed an aerial campaign in Iran, but both Washington and Tehran are firing on and boarding cargo ships in the waters around the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr Trump has vociferously defended its blockade of Iranian ports, which Iran calls a violation of the ceasefire, but some Iranian vessels have reportedly managed to pass through it.
Meanwhile, Washington's response to Iranian seizures of vessels has been measured: the White House said because the ships seized thus far are neither American nor Israeli, their seizure do not constitute a ceasefire violation.
On Wednesday, Axios reported, citing a US official, that Mr Trump does not intend for the ceasefire to be open-ended and instead plans to give Iran “three to five days” to present a unified counter-offer to Washington’s framework proposal for a deal.
In the hope that such an offer is made, whole stretches of Islamabad's road grid remain eerily quiet behind army checkpoints. Pakistan’s capital is holding its breath.
