Pakistan moves to mediate between the U.S. and Iran as Trump says he's 'giving it five days'

Pakistan is joining a growing list of countries acting as go-betweens for the United States and Iran, four sources told NBC News, with two of those sources saying an in-person meeting could be held in the coming days in Islamabad

Pakistan is joining a growing list of countries acting as go-betweens for the United States and Iran, four sources told NBC News, with two of those sources saying an in-person meeting could be held in the coming days in Islamabad.

A diplomatic source said Pakistan is in conversations with both the U.S. and Iran and is “well poised to play an active role” in discussions to end the war, which has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced millions as it enters its fourth week. A Gulf official said Pakistan had been passing messages between the two countries for the past two days.

For the first time since the conflict began with U.S. and Israeli strikes Feb. 28, President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. and Iran had held “very good and productive conversations” and that the discussions would “continue throughout the week.” The announcement was an about-face from the president’s stark ultimatum over the weekend demanding that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or the U.S. would “obliterate” the country’s power plants.

“We’re doing a five-day period. We’ll see how that goes, and if it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this,” Trump told reporters of his decision to postpone U.S. strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure. “Otherwise, we’ll keep bombing our little hearts out.”

Senior Iranian officials including its parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, denied Monday that negotiations were taking place and accused Trump of trying to “manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped.”