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Islamabad, Pakistan – Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is expected to arrive in Islamabad to meet with the government which is showing gratitude as much as it has a purpose.
Second Tour – his first overseas trip from the United States to Israel started violence in Iran on February 28 – coming a day after Pakistan and Qatar announced that the first round of advanced US-Iran talks in Burgenstock, Switzerland, gave a 60-day deadline for a final agreement.
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The timing is not accidental. Pezeshkian will arrive in Islamabad shortly after signing the most important agreement of his presidency. The union faces the same group of mistakes at home that it covered 2015 JCPOA negotiations.
The 2015 JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was the landmark nuclear weapons agreement between Iran and six world powers – the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China.
According to the agreement, Tehran agreed to reduce its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. The US left the agreement in 2018, during the first presidency of Donald Trump.
“The fact that Pezeshkian is going to Islamabad right after signing the MoU tells us that he needs to turn this informal agreement into a political center – at home, in the state, in the region, and in the world,” Reza Khanzadeh, a Middle East expert and professor at George Mason University, told Al Jazeera. “They need this visit more than Pakistan.”
During the visit, Pezeshkian will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who represented Switzerland in the negotiations, and President Asif Ali Zardari.
Pakistani Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani, Parliament Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will also meet the Iranian President, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.
The two sides are expected to discuss Swiss negotiations and ways to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, energy, border security, and regional connectivity.
The relationship started in trouble
The visit is Pezeshkian’s second visit to Pakistan as President of Iran.
Prior to Iran-Israel 12-day war in June 2025, Pezeshkian chose Pakistan as his first foreign visit, visiting the eastern city of Lahore before heading to the capital Islamabad.
Twelve agreements were signed. A target of $10bn in annual sales – up from around $3bn – was promised.
“Pakistan is the first country chosen by President Pezeshkian to come to express his gratitude and thanks to the Pakistani politicians, the military, and the people of Pakistan for their commitment, their support, for their efforts to achieve the mediation mission,” Afzal Reza, head of Iran’s IRNA news agency’s office in Islamabad, told Al Jazeera.
But Pakistan-Iran relations have not always been pleasant. In January 2024, Iran launched missile systems inside Pakistan’s Balochistan province, they say they want to fight the militant group, Jaish al-Adl.
Pakistan they returned it within 48 hourslaunching a series of attacks against covert militias in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan region.
The two neighbors also remembered their ambassadors, because the dispute was said to be one of them the worst of war between them in decades.
However, both sides quickly retreated. Iran’s Foreign Minister at the time, Hossein Amirabdollahian, went to Islamabad so that tensions subsided, and diplomatic relations gradually resumed.
A few months later, President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran along with Amirabdollahian.
Pezeshkian won the elections that followed and took office in July 2024, with fragile but improved relations with Pakistan.
“Pakistan is not just supporting communications,” Khanzadeh said. “Iran shows that Islamabad is politically fixated on the outcome of this process.”
‘Iran is assuming the role of authority’
Starting from US-Israel attacks Iran began on February 28, Sharif and Pezeshkian spoke on the phone seven times, often in conversations lasting up to an hour, according to officials.
Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, Field Marshal Asim Munirhe visited Tehran at least twice, as did Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi several times as part of Pakistan’s efforts.
Diplomacy culminated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on June 18 by Trump and Pezeshkian, with Sharif signing the document as a mediator.
The most recent call between the two leaders took place on June 18 – the day the MoU was signed – and lasted for more than 30 minutes. It was during these talks that Sharif invited Pezeshkian to visit Islamabad.
The first talks in Burgenstock, which ended on Sunday, produced several results: a high-level political committee, working groups on nuclear issues and sanctions, a dialogue on the Strait of Hormuz, and a solution to the conflict in Lebanon. Technical discussions continue this week.
Khanzadeh said that while Burgenstock conducts technical negotiations, Islamabad provides political channels for negotiations.
“What Islamabad can achieve that Burgenstock cannot is to establish trust,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Technical negotiations can create strategies, agendas, and affirmative language, but on their own they cannot create the political cover necessary for leaders to accept or control spoilers.”
Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Iran, told Al Jazeera that he was still waiting for the Iranian president’s visit.
On Iran’s nuclear program, he said Tehran “is better off not taking the nuclear weapons route” and will comply with IAEA safeguards. The biggest prize, he said, is the removal of sanctions.
“Already, for 60 days, Iran has been allowed to export its oil to the international market. So it is a big relief,” said Durrani.
In the case of Lebanon, Durrani was more direct. The responsibility to ensure that Israel respects any understanding between Washington and Tehran falls on the US, the former diplomat said.
“The first article of the Islamabad MOU is about peace in the region, including Lebanon,” he told Al Jazeera. “If Israel thinks it’s not part of the deal, then it’s their head and their business to deal with the United States.”
Pezeshkian’s visit also inspires Pakistan diplomatic standingexperts say. By choosing Islamabad openly, Khanzadeh said, Iran is confirming Pakistan’s role from a facilitator to a prominent regional mediator.
For Pezeshkian, too, he added, the visit has a domestic significance.
“It allows Pezeshkian to show that the talks are not a fantasy, that Iran is taking leadership, with its regional allies, and not just responding to American pressure,” he said.
