Marco Rubio thanks Pakistan for 'role in advancing peace in Middle East' after meeting Ishaq Dar

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met PakistDeputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and thanked Pakistan for its role in advancing peace in the Middle East, the State Department said on Thursday.

In a post on X, Rubio said, "Met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and thanked him for the role Pakistan continues to play in advancing peace in the Middle East."

"We agreed upon the importance of working together to further strengthen a meaningful partnership for better security and more prosperity for our two nations," he added.



Meanwhile, in a development that could reshape West Asia's security landscape, US President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will convene an emergency meeting in the White House Situation Room to make a final decision on a broad, multi-part peace deal with Iran.

Taking to Truth Social, Trump outlined the rigid, unyielding terms under which the United States is prepared to permanently lift its unprecedented naval blockade, end hostilities, and orchestrate the highly complex excavation and destruction of Iran's deeply buried enriched nuclear materials.

The President made it explicitly clear that any comprehensive settlement hinges on Tehran permanently relinquishing its nuclear weapons ambitions, alongside the immediate, unconditional opening of the world's most critical oil chokepoint.

"Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb," Trump declared. "The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions. All water mines (bombs), if any, will be terminated (we have removed, through detonation, numerous such mines with our great underwater mine sweepers. Iran will complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any mines that are left, which will not be many!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Signalling an imminent end to the maritime standoff, Trump announced that commercial and international ships previously trapped by the U.S. Navy's defensive perimeter are free to depart.