ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday met with US Chargé d’Affaires Natalie A. Baker and discussed regional peace and security issues, Naqvi’s ministry said, days after his visit to Iran for talks on bilateral ties and wider regional developments.

Naqvi this week traveled to Iran on a two-day visit and held meetings with President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Iranian counterpart Iskandar Momeni as tensions persist between the US and Iran, with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight to end their months-long conflict.

Naqvi, along with Pakistan’s Defense Forces Chief Filed Marshal Asim Munir, has emerged as key figure in Pakistan’s mediation efforts to diplomatically resolve the US-Iran conflict, frequently traveling to Tehran to hold talks with the Iranian leadership.

His latest visit to the neighboring country came a day after Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has acted as Tehran’s chief negotiator in talks to end the war, said Tehran had conveyed to Washington through mediators its conditions for reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

“Naqvi held an important meeting with US Ambassador Natalie Baker. The meeting focused on strengthening Pak-US relations and exploring avenues for enhanced investment cooperation,” the Pakistani interior ministry said.

‎“‎The latest situation in the region, efforts for peace and stability, regional security matters, and Pakistan’s efforts for peace were also discussed. Both sides agreed to strengthen mutual engagement and communication to further promote bilateral cooperation.”

Pakistan emerged as a key mediator in the US-Iran war, hosting rare, direct talks between the parties and helping reach an interim peace deal in June. However, the peace deal quickly fell apart, and both sides resumed attacks against each other in the Middle East.

In his meeting with Naqvi this week, President Pezeshkian described Iran and Pakistan as two “powerful countries in the region that possess immense human capacities and rich resources,” Iranian state-run IRNA news agency reported.

“If we combine these capacities and join hands, we can meet many of our needs by relying on domestic and regional capabilities,” the president was quoted as saying.

Pezeshkian noted that back-to-back meetings between senior officials from the Iranian and Pakistani governments in the past few months are a “clear sign” of continuous interaction between the two states, amid increased US interventions in the region.

Islamabad has repeatedly urged a return to the US-Iran interim agreement, maintaining that dialogue and diplomacy were the only way to resolve the months-long conflict.