The uncertain location of the next round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran: will today’s meeting between Vladimir Putin and Abbas Arghchi give rise to a new address?
Pretty bluntly, German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz assessed today that the Iranians—when it comes to the faltering negotiations between Washington and Tehran, have “humiliated” US President Donald Trump. (https://www.newsmax.com/globaltalk/iran-trump-ceasefire/2026/04/27/id/1254309/).
“The Iranians are obviously very good at negotiating, or rather, very good at not negotiating, allowing the Americans to travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” Mertz said during a talk with students in Marsberg.
Mertz may have had in mind the first round of indirect negotiations between the US and Iran, which took place on April 11th in Islamabad (on the photo) when JD Vance, US Vice President, after 21 hours of exchange of views through mediators, announced that the negotiations had ended “without results”.
Or maybe Mertz had in mind, that unsuspecting “round” last weekend, when at first glance it was not entirely clear who rejected first the possibility of American-Iranian talks in the capital of Pakistan: Washington or Tehran?
Namely, as of last Friday, official Tehran announced the weekend visit of the head of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, to Islamabad (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iranian-foreign-minister-returns-to-islamabad-after-oman-trip-sources/3918604).
Then on Saturday, news came from Washington that President Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, were preparing to travel to Islamabad. (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8103xklreo).
Somehow, it was reported from Tehran on Saturday that Araghchi does not plan to meet with Kushner and Witkoff during his stay in Islamabad (https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-894077).
And then US President Donald Trump decided that Kushner and Witkoff will not travel to Islamabad. “Why should they spend 15-16 hours on a plane to meet some people that no one has ever heard of?”, remarked Trump, without specifying who he had in mind. (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/world/middleeast/trump-witkoff-kushner-pakistan-trip-cancelled.html).
“There are phones, we have good, secure lines: if (the Iranians) want to talk, they can come to us, or call us,” Trump added on the same occasion.
If so, how to understand the statement of the Iranian head of diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, today from Saint Petersburg, that “the Americans requested that the negotiations continue”? (https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-894337).
How and where, probably the whole world would be interested. Is it in America, or on the phone, or somewhere else?
As things stand now, it seems that Islamabad is no longer an option for the Iranians. “Pakistan is a good friend and neighbour, but it is not a suitable mediator,” Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for Iran’s National Committee for Security and Foreign Policy, said last weekend. (https://indianexpress.com/article/world/us-news/pakistan-not-a-suitable-intermediary-says-iranian-mp-amid-stalled-talks-10657622/).
Will the dialogue between Vladimir Putin and Abbas Araghchi perhaps lead to a new address for the continuation of negotiations between Washington and Tehran?
