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Trump Announces Ceasefire & Holds Peace Talks With Iran in Pakistan
- A Radical Dispatch
1) Trump Announces Peace Talks
President Trump has surprised the world yet again by announcing a five day pause on hostilities amid pace talks with Iran in Pakistan.
Trump was buoyant, claiming that he and the Iranians very much want to make a deal.
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President Trump: “We’ve had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have points, major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement. Perhaps that hasn’t been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces. They’re unable to talk to each other. But we’ve had very strong talks. Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them. They went... I would say perfectly, I would say that if they carry through with that, it’ll end that problem, that conflict and I think it’ll end it very very substantially. We have very much in mind our partners in the Middle East, we’ve had great relationships with a lot of them. As you know a lot of them were surprisingly hit and I was surprised to see it, and so was everyone else, but we have uh…they’re very much in mind in the discussions. So the discussions took place yesterday they went into yesterday evening. They want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too. We’re going to get together today by probably phone because it’s very hard to find a country. It’s very hard for them to get out, I guess. But we’ll at some point very, very soon meet. We’re doing a five-day period. We’ll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”
This last line “And if it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out” very much reflects the ‘strategic interventions’ approach that we have been stating forms President Trump’s strategy: overwhelming military power deployed as a negotiation tactic.
As we stated, “President Trump, the Americans and the Israelis, have as long as they like bombing Iran until they decide to stop…”
Radical Media reports 19th March 2026:
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A key element in these negotiations will be the fate of the Strait of Hormuz.
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Journalist: “What about the state of Hormuz? Who’s going to be in control of that?”
President Trump: “That will be opened very soon, if this works.”
Journalist: “How soon? And who’s in control of it? Will Iran still be able to control the flow of oil?”
President Trump: “Be jointly controlled. Maybe me. Maybe me. Me and the Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah. Look, and there’ll also be a form of a very serious form of a regime change. Now, in all fairness, everybody’s been killed from the regime.”
But Trump has gone into some detail regarding the nuclear programme too, stating that an agreement has, in fact, already been reached.
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Journalist: “What exactly are you looking for in these talks, Mr. President?”
President Trump: “We’re looking for all of the things that we’ve been talking about. We want to see no nuclear bomb, no nuclear weapon, not even close to it, low-key on the missiles. We want to see peace in the Middle East. The nuclear dust, we’re going to want that. And I think we’re going to get that. We’ve agreed to that. Yeah, we’ve agreed to that. And we want no enrichment. But we also want the enriched uranium. If this happens, it’s a great...start for Iran to build itself back. And it’s everything that we want. And it’s also great for Israel and it’s great for the other Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, all of them, Kuwait and Bahrain in particular. So it’s great for all of them.”
A timely intervention by US-ally and key mediating Gulf Arab state, Qatar, has set the tone well.
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Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Majid al-Ansari: “First of all, I think we’ve said this countless times. Iran has been here for millennia. The people in this region have been here for millennia. Nobody’s going anywhere. Total annihilation is not an option. No one peoples or country will disappear from existence by the wish or whim of any political actor. We will live next to each other. We will be neighbours for the future of humankind, and we have to find ways of living next to each other. This is a very difficult moment. Our country has been attacked. Our sovereignty has been attacked. We have seen the effects on our economy, on the daily lives of people living here. And we don’t take it lightly and we don’t see the attacks on our sovereignty as something that we can live with. Now, that said, obviously, living next to 90 million people in Iran, a proud people that we have shared the Gulf with for, as I said, millennia, will continue. And we will have to find a way past this. This is a very difficult moment, but we will find our way out of it. And I have to say here that our message was always to Iran: the brotherly relationship, the neighbourly relationship, between our peoples should take paramount over any other political consideration. The fact that they decided to attack our country like this does not show good neighbourly relations, or the essence of that brotherly relationship, but it is something that we don’t find any alternative to in our region.”
In the end, there is no alternative to peace.
2) Pakistan Mediates
These talks are being held via key strategic partner, the Muslim world’s only nuclear power, Pakistan.
Financial Times reports 23rd March 2026:
Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif has confirmed this news.
Media are reporting that US envoys Witkoff and Kushner, alongside US Vice President JD Vance, are already on their way to thee Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The role of Pakistan playing such a key role in rebalancing the region was forecast by us on day one of this conflict with Beverly Turner for GB News America.
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GB News host Bev Turner: “You’ve been saying for, correct me if I’m wrong, but at least a year now that you think you were looking at a grand regional settlement. You think the Middle East is about to enter a period of prolonged peace, the likes of which we’ve probably not seen, well, we’ve not seen in our lifetime. Is that looking more likely or less likely tonight, Maajid?”
Maajid Nawaz: “Well, I’m going to say something counterintuitive, but you probably could predict my answer Bev, I think it’s looking more likely. And the reasons for that is that one of the unintended consequences of Iran’s calculated escalation, Iran deliberately escalated by attacking Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf countries who were not involved. Saudi Arabia had prohibited the US from using its air bases prior to this attack, which is why they’re so upset with what Iran did. So their calculated escalation was done in order to drag everybody else into the war, because when they’re fighting for their existential existence, it suits them to have as many parties for and against them in the war, because if you broaden the conflict, Russia gets involved, Iran has more supporters and therefore more chance of surviving. So that’s what they tried to do. What’s happened instead is because of the Pakistani-Saudi-Turkey joint military defence pact, when Saudi has said now that it would support the U.S. in any war effort necessary, because they’re so upset with what Iran, literally bombed them, right? So Saudi has said to America, we will support you by any means necessary, that drags in nuclear Pakistan because of the defence pact they signed about six months ago. Now, when you end up with that kind of escalation, Iran, I think miscalculated here, the only option left, and they are logical people, Persians can be very logical, right? The only option left does mean come to terms in a post-Khamenei context and agree a peace deal. I do think that’s what’s going to happen. Iran cannot oppose countries such as Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia when they come together, as they have done, in a mutual defence pact. It’s just too much for Iran to deal with.”
Since presenting this view on GB News, the Saudis have confirmed it.
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Journalist: “Pakistan is a nuclear nation.”
Saudi Analyst: “Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And we have this agreement right now with Pakistan. It’s a mutual defence agreement. And there is, like we can say it literally, that there is a nuclear umbrella over Saudi Arabia. A Pakistani nuclear umbrella over Saudi Arabia. And we appreciate Pakistan. That does not mean we are not, that does not mean that we are actually moving away from our strategic partners like the United States and Europe, etc, no. Saudi Arabia is just diversifying its strategic relations. Definitely, Pakistan has been always a steadfast partner and ally of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And what happens in Pakistan affects us, and what happens in Saudi Arabia affects the Pakistanis...”
It is the joint defence pact that Saudi Arabia signed with Pakistan prior to this conflict that has provided Pakistan with the military leverage to act as the guarantor for peace. Meanwhile, Pakistan also enjoys cordial relations with Iran, while maintaining strong ties to President Trump after having joined his Gaza peace board.
Middle East Eye reports 18th March 2026:
“Saudi Arabia has so far relied on Pakistan to mediate with Iran. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said earlier this month that he had directly raised the defence pact in conversations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. ‘We have a defence pact with Saudi Arabia, and I conveyed this to the Iranian side,’ Dar said, adding that Tehran responded by seeking assurances that Saudi territory would not be used as a launchpad for attacks against Iran. In addition to its diplomatic and defence ties with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan is reliant on the Gulf for crude oil and natural gas. This week, the Pakistan-flagged ship, the Karachi, also known as the Lorax, became the first vessel carrying non-Iranian crude to transit through Hormuz, with its ship-tracking data, called the Automatic Identification System, on. The vessel belongs to Pakistan’s state-owned National Shipping Corporation, and its oil was from the UAE. Analysts say Pakistan likely negotiated transit with Iran’s government.”
The talks are, so far, looking optimistic.
3) Some Iranian Officials Deny Talks
There have been conflicting reports from the Iranian side about the veracity of these talks, with Israeli press reporting that the Iranians are indeed on board.
Media speculation has arisen about exactly whom the Americans claim they are talking to inside Iran, with most settling on the speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
“The Trump administration is quietly weighing Iran’s parliament speaker as a potential partner — and even a future leader — as the president signals a shift from military pressure toward a negotiated endgame. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the 64-year-old who has repeatedly threatened the U.S. and its allies with retaliation, is seen by at least some in the White House as a workable partner, who could lead Iran and negotiate with the Trump administration in the war’s next phase, according to two administration officials. But the White House isn’t ready to commit to any one person, hoping to stress test multiple candidates as they look for someone willing to make a deal, said the two people, both granted anonymity to describe internal thinking. ‘He’s a hot option,’ one administration official said, cautioning that no decisions have been made. ‘He’s one of the highest…But we got to test them, and we can’t rush into it’.”
This speculation was aided by the US and Israeli decision not to target two key figures of the Iranian theocracy.
But, to add to the confusion, and despite both the Americans and the Pakistanis sounding hopeful, some quarters inside Iran have denied that any such peace talks are taking place at all, even as the Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf appears to deny the entire story.
The Times reports 23rd March 2026:
“President Trump stepped back from the brink yesterday after threatening to destroy Iran’s power infrastructure unless it reopened the Strait of Hormuz, as he insisted there were’very good’ discussions on ending the war. The Times has been told that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, has travelled to Pakistan, which has offered to host in-person talks. There is, however, so far no sign of any meaningful Iranian figure joining him there….The speaker of the Iranian parliament, the man identified by Trump allies as a potential interlocutor in Tehran, strongly rejected the suggestion of any talks, either direct or indirect. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X: ‘No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.’ He added that Iran demanded ‘complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors’.”
Such a pattern of denial is quite normal for axis powers while in negotiations, because they see seeking peace as weakness, but it shouldn’t worry observers too much.
And the Americans have no political reason to overstate Iranian intentions and embarrass themselves, if talks were not making progress.
Trump has clarified that they are indeed dealing with figures who the Americans believe are in charge, inside Iran.
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President Trump: “…we’ve wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two and largely phase three, but we’re dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader..uh you know it’s a little tough they’ve wiped out, we’ve wiped out everybody.”
Journalist: “Is that the Supreme Leader?”
President Trump: “No, not the Supreme Leader. Well, nobody’s ever, nobody heard of the second Supreme Leader, the son. Nobody, we have not heard from the son. Every once in a while you’ll see a statement made, but we haven’t, we don’t know if he’s living. But the people that seem to be running it, and they seem that based on, really, fact, because things they’ve said have taken place.”
As Radical Media stated on the very first day of these strikes, and like Venezuela, it does seem as though Trump has decided to keep the regime in place.
Some analysts are now confirming that, as in Venezuela, the US will be looking for figures inside Iran who are willing to cut a deal.
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Host: “We’re gonna bring in John Hendren in Washington DC. And John, despite Iran denying that these talks are happening, the White House seems confident that progress is being made. Is it clear, though, who the US is actually talking to in these negotiations?”
John Hendren: “Well, US President Donald Trump hasn’t said who those ‘good and productive talks’ he’s been referring to have been with. Usually the US deals with intermediaries in other Middle Eastern countries. But an Israeli official did tell Axios that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two intermediaries for the US administration, have been in touch with the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammed Bahar Ghalibaf. And although he has denied any direct contact, the US is said, through US officials talking to US media, is said to be looking for a Delce Rodriguez character. That’s the vice president in Venezuela who, after Nicolas Maduro, the president, was captured by the US, she got a deal with the US that included giving oil to the US in order to form a peace agreement between the two countries. And these talks led Trump to announce a five-day pause in attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure. That just happens to be about the amount of time it takes for thousands of Marines to arrive in that area. Whether that’s a coincidence or not is not clear. Trump made this amount announcement before the markets opened. So stocks went up and oil prices went down. That achieved one goal of his. So he might be sincere. There is speculation that he might be backing down from his threat to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure, that he was just trying to calm markets. Or it could simply be strategic ambiguity, an effort to keep Iran off its balance as to what the U.S. endgame is.”
Journalist: “Okay, thanks so much, John, for all of that. John Hendren for us in Washington, DC.”
In balance, it is probably fair to say that whomever the US is speaking to inside Iran wishes to keep these talks quiet until they are ready to announce a deal.
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President Trump: “…sort of forget. And we’re winning another one, I tell you, we’re winning so big, nobody’s ever seen anything like we’re doing in the Middle East with Iran. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people. They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us. There’s never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran.”
Meanwhile, the Israelis have confirmed that they are not part of these talks.
And Netanyahu had already stated that the Israelis will carry on bombing Iran until such a time that an agreement is reached.
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PM Netanyahu: “Earlier today I spoke with our friend, President Trump. President Trump believes that there is a chance to leverage the great achievements of the IDF and the United States military to realise the goals of the war through an agreement. An agreement that will protect our vital interests. At the same time, we continue to attack both Iran and Lebanon. We are smashing the missile and nuclear programs and we continue to severely harm Hezbollah. Just a few days ago we eliminated two more nuclear scientists, and wee are still active. We will protect our vital interests in any situation.”
4) Iran is leaderless, depleted and isolated
One of the major reasons why these talks will likely succeed is because…
