Axios: US-Iran talks falter as deal remains out of reach

The Pakistani and Qatari mediators continue to relay messages between the United States and Iran, but the efforts have yielded no significant progress, Axios reports, citing regional sources familiar with the matter.

Some of the sources believe Pakistan is providing more optimistic assessments than the talks warrant in an attempt to create momentum that could help break the current deadlock.

Following an April 8 ceasefire and a summit in Islamabad several days later, the US and Iran sought to negotiate an end to the war.

By early May, the White House thought it was close to reaching a deal, but Iran took more than 10 days to respond.

According to Axios, White House negotiators began to suspect that Iranian negotiators — Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — lacked the authority to finalize a deal and were being overruled by the IRGC.

By Jeyhun Aghazada