orianomattei

  Islamabad, Pakistan –  Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says there were moments in the final stretch of negotiations between the United States and Iran when the talks appeared close to collapse. Each time, he told the National Assembly on Monday, it was Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful military chief, who kept the deliberations alive. end of list “Throughout this period, he was awake all day and night,” Sharif told lawmakers, adding that Munir had “sacrificed day and night to extinguish the flames of war”. There were many moments, he said, when “it felt like the negotiations would come to a halt” but the army chief did not give up. “If this journey had not continued,” Sharif said, “the dream of peace would have been shattered.” The acknowledgement, unusually specific for a process conducted almost entirely out of public view, offered the clearest glimpse yet into how Pakistan pulled off what many had considered an improbable task: brokering a deal to end...

  Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday, as efforts to broker a   peace deal   between Tehran and Washington pick up pace amid the United States president’s announcement of a pause on attempts to forcibly open the Strait of Hormuz. The visit — and its timing — underscore what analysts say are China’s significant stakes in the US-Iran war, and the role Beijing could play in influencing the direction of the conflict. end of list “We believe that a comprehensive ceasefire brooks no delay, a resumption of hostilities is inadvisable, and persisting with negotiations is particularly important,” Wang told Araghchi at the start of their meeting, according to footage released by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV. The visit comes a week before Trump is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15. Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged China to press Iran to ease its blockade of the Strait of H...

  United States President Donald Trump has said the US has carried out a “large-scale strike” against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro. In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed Maduro and his wife had been “captured and flown out of the country” following the operation, which he said was conducted “in conjunction with US law enforcement”. The US carried out   strikes inside Venezuela  early on Saturday, in a dramatic escalation that Venezuelans had feared for weeks. US media outlets, including Fox News and CBS News, earlier reported that the US carried out strikes on the South American country. In a statement on X, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said Venezuela was experiencing a “new dawn”. “A new dawn for Venezuela! The tyrant is gone. He will now – finally – face justice for his crimes,” he said. In an initial statement, Maduro accused the US of an “extremely serious military aggression”. “Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces b...