Pakistani minister visits Tehran, delivers 'special message' for supreme leader

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi delivered a letter for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran on Sunday, as mediation efforts to end the three-month war between Iran and the United States appeared to have stalled. 

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency said Naqvi described the letter as a "special letter" from Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Khamenei. 

Pakistan has been mediating largely indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran on an interim deal that would halt the fighting and defer questions, including Iran's nuclear program, to further talks. But a deal has remained elusive while the two sides have periodically skirmished. An advisor to Khamenei, Mohsen Rezaei, revealed that a peace deal hinged on the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets. A source familiar with the matter said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had directed a team to assess costs of damage inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran and to look at redirecting Iranian assets to those states for repairs.