Iran won't talk beyond JCPOA: Pak FM

In an interview with Fox News, Qureshi said during his conversations with Iranian leaders he got the impression that they are willing to talk within the JCPOA, but they are not ready to talk about the JCPOA.

“They want to see what the grievances are and how we can remove them, but they don’t think the JCPOA should be scrapped and things start all over again," said Qureshi.

To a question, the foreign minister who recently visited Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US on a peace mission said the primary goal of his diplomatic offensive was to tell everyone that de-escalation in the region is in everybody’s interest.

“Pakistan is interested in de-escalation. We feel that new conflict in the region can be very very dangerous,” he noted.

He was of the view that the impact of such conflict can go beyond the region if oil supplies are disrupted, the global economy will be affected "so we should think of undertaking steps to defuse the tensions that took place because of the airstrike".

Qureshi said the Iranian President and the Foreign Minister sounded positive to him during the meetings. “They were in no mood to escalate things further and they did realize the consequences of escalating further,” he said.

Responding to another question he said President Trump has vowed that he would bring back his troops from Afghanistan and that is why he asked Pakistan to facilitate a dialogue with the Taliban so that there could be the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

“We have facilitated that dialogue and hope there would be peace and stability in Afghanistan.  What we are asking for is that even if you withdraw do it responsibly, do not do what you did in the 1980s where you created a vacuum and other forces came in to fill that vacuum,” noted the foreign minister.

He added Taliban are today talking to the Americans there is a possibility of reaching an agreement. He said Pakistan’s top intelligence agency ISI has been supporting the peace process in Afghanistan and they used whatever little influence they had to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

To another question regarding ties with India, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan is very clear that if Indians take one step towards peace he will take two.

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