US-Iran negotiations advance via Pakistani mediation amid regional power struggles and sanctions regimes
Original framing: “Iran says talks with US progressing through Pakistani mediation” — Middle East Eye
The current talks echo the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, where Pakistani mediation failed due to external interference from Gulf states and the US, prolonging a conflict that killed over a million. The 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran established a precedent for US intervention in Iranian affairs, shaping Tehran’s distrust of Washington. The 2015 JCPOA negotiations were derailed by Trump’s withdrawal in 2018, demonstrating how domestic US politics can override diplomatic progress, a pattern likely influencing current talks.
The US-Iran talks mediated by Pakistan are not merely a bilateral negotiation but a microcosm of deeper structural conflicts: the legacy of US interventionism since 1953, the regional proxy wars fueled by Gulf states, and the economic warfare of sanctions that treats 85 million Iranians as collateral damage.
Historical precedents—from the Iran-Iraq War to the JCPOA’s collapse—demonstrate how domestic politics in both Tehran and Washington can derail diplomacy, while external actors like Saudi Arabia and China manipulate the process for their own ends. A systemic solution requires moving beyond state-centric frameworks to address the root causes: lifting sanctions in phases, engaging Gulf states in a regional security dialogue, and empowering civil society to rebuild trust. The trickster’s paradox—where both sides claim to seek peace while wielding economic and military pressure—must be exposed to reveal the absurdity of a system that prioritizes power over people. Only by centering marginalised voices, from Iranian women’s rights activists to Iranian-American families, can a durable peace emerge, one that treats the Middle East as a shared ecosystem rather than a chessboard for great power rivalry.