Iran Tells Shehbaz the Islamabad MoU Is Still Alive — a Rare Opening in the US-Iran War

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on September 24, 2026, according to Shehbaz's account of the meeting, that the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding remains "fully acceptable" to Iran and that Tehran is "ready to take it forward" — a notable signal of continuity for a peace framework that briefly halted the US-Iran war before the truce unravelled in July.

What the two leaders discussed

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's 81st session in New York, where both leaders are attending this week's General Debate. According to Shehbaz's own account of the "detailed" discussion, Pezeshkian reaffirmed Iran's commitment to the MoU's terms and its willingness to move toward implementation. Shehbaz, in turn, stressed the importance of building on and implementing the agreement, and reaffirmed Pakistan's readiness to keep playing what he described as a sincere and constructive role in support of regional peace and stability.

What the Islamabad MoU actually says

The Islamabad Memorandum is a 14-point agreement between the United States and Iran, signed electronically by President Trump and President Pezeshkian in June 2026 and countersigned by Shehbaz Sharif as mediator on June 18. Pakistan brokered the deal, a diplomatic role Islamabad has leaned on since. Its central commitments were an immediate and permanent cessation of military operations and Iran's reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. Both provisions broke down within weeks: a ceasefire agreed in April had already failed once before the MoU, and by August the MoU itself had formally expired after Iran resumed attacking commercial vessels in the strait, a chokepoint whose disruption has been one of the more consistent drivers of Pakistani fuel-price volatility this year.

Why Pezeshkian's statement matters now

Iran restating that the MoU's terms are still acceptable does not, on its own, restart the ceasefire — the two sides remain locked in the war-of-attrition pattern that has defined the conflict since the summer, trading limited strikes while the US runs an intensified sanctions campaign. But it is a rare public signal from Tehran that the diplomatic off-ramp Pakistan helped negotiate hasn't been discarded, at a moment when Shehbaz's own UNGA address this week was expected to press for exactly that kind of de-escalation. Whether Washington reciprocates the sentiment is a separate question the meeting did not resolve.

The stakes for Pakistan specifically

Pakistan's interest in reviving the MoU goes beyond diplomatic credit for having brokered it. Continued Strait of Hormuz disruption feeds directly into international oil prices, which Pakistan now passes through to pump prices on a daily basis rather than the fortnightly cycle it used before the war — a mechanism explained in detail in our fuel-pricing explainer. A durable de-escalation would remove one of the more persistent sources of imported inflation Pakistani households have faced this year, alongside whatever diplomatic standing Islamabad gains from having kept the channel open.

What happens next

Neither leader's public remarks specified a concrete next step or timeline for implementation. Formal Pakistan-IMF review talks are already underway this week in a separate track, and Shehbaz's own UNGA address was scheduled for later on September 25 — both venues where further comment on the Iran file could surface.

Build Better Pakistan's Foreign Desk tracks how the US-Iran conflict and Pakistan's diplomatic role in it are evolving, and will update this piece as the two sides respond.