Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday that Tehran was prepared to discuss a conditional halt to its strikes against Israeli and American targets, his most explicit opening since the Islamabad mediation track began last week and a statement that mediators said gave them new room to draft a working text.

In an interview broadcast on the state network IRIB shortly after evening prayers, Araghchi framed the shift as a response to what he called “the seriousness of the Pakistani-Saudi-Egyptian paper,” referring to the framework principles circulated by mediators on Sunday. He stopped well short of accepting Israeli demands and said any pause would have to be reciprocal, time-bound and tied to “an honest verification regime, not a Western pretext for further attacks.”

“If the other side is prepared to set down its weapons for a defined period, the Islamic Republic is prepared to consider the same,” Araghchi said. “We are not negotiating our defense. We are testing whether peace is possible at all.”

The comments were quickly echoed, in muted form, in Islamabad, where Pakistani Foreign Secretary Saira Tarar told reporters that Araghchi’s remarks had been previewed in writing to the three mediators on Monday evening. “We now have something resembling overlapping language from both sides on the question of a pause,” Tarar said. “That is not a ceasefire. It is the precondition for drafting one.”

A narrowing draft

Diplomats briefed on Tuesday’s sessions said the mediators were working from a four-page draft, marked “Working Paper II,” that for the first time included bracketed text contributed by both Iranian and Israeli interlocutors. The brackets — diplomatic shorthand for unresolved language — covered the duration of any halt, the scope of strikes that would be paused, and the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency in verifying Iranian nuclear sites.

Three officials with knowledge of the document said the Iranian side had accepted, in principle, a 30-day pause and a “rolling extension” mechanism, but had pushed back on language that would commit Tehran to halting support for Houthi forces in Yemen. The Israeli side, communicating through a small American-led liaison cell in Riyadh rather than appearing in Islamabad, had agreed to a corresponding suspension of strikes on civilian-adjacent infrastructure but continued to insist on a clause covering Iranian missile transfers to Hezbollah.

“We are not at agreement, but we are at last in the same paragraph,” said Hossam Zaki, the Egyptian assistant foreign minister, after a closed-door session at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad. “There is real text now. That changes the conversation.”

Washington’s careful posture

The Trump administration’s response was deliberately restrained. State Department spokesperson Margaret Whittaker, asked at Tuesday’s press briefing whether the United States welcomed Araghchi’s comments, said only that Washington had “noted” the remarks and was “in continuous coordination” with its Gulf and European partners. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was more direct: “We are not going to oversell this. We have seen Iranian foreign ministers walk forward and then walk back twice already since March. The president wants a ceasefire that holds, not a photo opportunity.”

Inside the administration, officials were said to be divided. Two White House aides described a tension between Vice President Vance, who has pressed for a sharper U.S. embrace of the Islamabad framework, and Defense Secretary Hegseth, who has argued that any pause should follow rather than precede further pressure on Iranian missile production. President Donald Trump, asked by a pool reporter on the South Lawn whether the war could end this month, said, “We’ll see. We’ll see very soon.”

On Capitol Hill, the reaction tracked the war-powers debate now reanimating both chambers. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said Araghchi’s remarks were “the first real opening we’ve had in five weeks” and urged the administration to accept the Islamabad framework as a basis for talks. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas dismissed the Iranian statement as “a delay tactic dressed up in better grammar.”

Strikes continue, with shifts at the edges

The diplomatic motion did not pause the war. Iranian state media reported that overnight Israeli strikes hit a fuel depot near Tabriz and a missile-production facility in Kerman province, killing at least nine workers and damaging a connected residential block. The Israel Defense Forces, in a written statement, confirmed strikes against “military-industrial targets” in northwestern and southeastern Iran but did not address the civilian damage.

Iran fired a single ballistic missile toward central Israel late Monday night, intercepted by an Arrow battery over the Negev, the IDF said. There were no casualties. U.S. Central Command reported one drone-attack attempt against a base in Iraq’s al-Anbar province; the drone was shot down before reaching the perimeter.

Notably, there were no Houthi launches against shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb on Tuesday, the first such 24-hour quiet stretch since mid-March, according to maritime risk consultancy Ambrey Analytica. Three Western shipping officials said the lull was likely coincidental but had nevertheless drawn attention at insurance underwriters’ offices in London.

A regional bet

For the Gulf states underwriting the Islamabad effort, Tuesday’s remarks were both a vindication and a warning. “The Saudis put their name on this paper because they believed it would draw something out of Tehran,” said Layla Hassan, a Beirut-based regional analyst with the Levant Policy Forum. “Today it did. The next ten days will test whether it can also draw something out of Jerusalem.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, in a brief statement from New York, said Araghchi’s remarks were “an opening that the world cannot afford to squander” and reiterated his offer to convene a Security Council session “the day a ceasefire is signed.”

Mediators are expected to release a second joint communiqué on Thursday. Pakistani officials said a draft would be tested with both capitals over the next 48 hours, with further sessions in Islamabad scheduled through Saturday and the possibility of a brief U.S.-Iranian technical exchange under Omani auspices later in the week.