Amid Escalation, Pakistan’s Interior Minister to Arrive in Tehran Today

Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi will arrive in Tehran today, Saturday. Sources told Al Arabiya that Naqvi is expected to discuss a mechanism for reaching a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, and that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff are handling the exchange of messages between the countries. The Wall Street Journal reported that the dispute over the release of tens of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets has become one of the main obstacles to an agreement between Washington and Tehran. In April, it was reported that the United States was expected to unfreeze $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets, although American officials denied this.

At the same time, it was reported that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited the nuclear laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which specializes in handling and removing enriched uranium, as part of preparations for negotiations over Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. Alongside the negotiation efforts, Iran attacked Kuwait and Bahrain with ballistic missiles overnight and launched drones toward the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the United States responded by striking two Iranian radar sites on Qeshm Island and in the town of Gorok on the coast of the Persian Gulf. According to the command’s statement, Iran launched four drones toward the strait and three ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain. The drones and two of the missiles were intercepted, the U.S. military said, and one missile fell short of its target.

In response, Iran’s Foreign Ministry declared that