Diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war, now in its fourth month, intensified sharply on Friday as Pakistan's army chief arrived in Tehran for high-level talks, Qatar dispatched a separate mediation team to the Iranian capital, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged "slight progress" in negotiations — even as reports emerged that Washington was weighing new military strikes.

Field Marshal Asim Munir, chief of Pakistan's armed forces, flew to Tehran where he held late-night talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and was received by Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. It was Munir's second visit to the Iranian capital as part of Islamabad's central mediating role — a role Rubio publicly praised, describing Pakistan as Washington's "primary interlocutor" and saying US officials were in "constant communication" with Munir at the highest levels. Pakistan helped broker a temporary ceasefire on 8 April and hosted the highest-level direct US-Iran talks since 1979 on 11-12 April. Islamabad is now pushing to arrange a second round of direct negotiations, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was due in Beijing on Saturday, with analysts noting that China — which has offered indirect support for the mediation — may be brought in as a guarantor of any eventual deal.

Qatar, widely regarded as one of the Middle East's most skilled diplomatic intermediaries, also sent a negotiating team to Tehran on Friday in what sources described as a supporting role for the Pakistani-led process. Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani held separate phone calls with his Saudi, Turkish and Jordanian counterparts to coordinate regional backing for the mediation push. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed Qatar's involvement but emphasised that Pakistan remained the main mediator. The flurry of activity prompted Baghaei to describe the moment as "a turning point or a decisive situation," while also warning that gaps between Tehran and Washington remained "deep and significant" and that no agreement was close. An Iranian official source told Al Jazeera that a ceasefire "on all fronts" was an "essential prerequisite" for any future negotiations, and that ending the war, lifting the US blockade and ensuring stability in the Strait of Hormuz were Tehran's priorities. Iran ruled out handing over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to the United States, calling such a demand a "non-starter."

The Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that normally carries roughly a fifth of global oil supplies — sits at the heart of the dispute. Iran effectively closed the strait after the war began on 28 February and has established a Persian Gulf Strait Authority that would impose tolls on commercial shipping. Rubio flatly rejected that arrangement, saying no country in the world should accept an Iranian tolling system on an international waterway. Five Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — wrote to the International Maritime Organization urging commercial ships not to engage with the Iranian authority. The European Union meanwhile moved to expand its sanctions framework to target individuals responsible for blocking the waterway, allowing for travel bans and asset freezes. Rubio also said that if Iran refused to reopen the strait, a "Plan B" could involve willing NATO countries — though not necessarily NATO as a formal alliance — taking action to keep it open, a proposal he discussed at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden.

The diplomatic momentum is unfolding against a backdrop of persistent military tension. US media outlets Axios and CBS reported that Washington was weighing new strikes on Iran, though no final decision had been made — a dynamic that echoed the war's origins, when Trump ordered strikes in late February shortly after signalling he would allow diplomacy to proceed. Trump himself said on Friday that Iran was "dying to make a deal" but repeated that Tehran could not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon. A UAE presidential adviser, Anwar Gargash, put the odds of a deal at roughly 50-50 and cautioned Iran against overplaying its hand: "There's a tendency to overestimate their cards," he said. Sources cited by Axios suggested that a breakthrough could come within 24 hours, though Iranian sources close to the negotiating team were careful to say no final outcome had been reached. The dominant assessment among regional diplomats was one of serious but fragile momentum: "This is still crisis management under pressure, not reconciliation," one diplomat said.