Islamabad is “already ready to host talks" involving Iran and the United States, a Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson told CNN on Monday night.
“If both sides agree, Pakistan is always ready to host talks," Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi told the network.
Earlier, a Pakistani official and a second source told the Reuters news agency that direct talks between the US and Iran on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.
Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states have been relaying messages between Iran and the US, a European official told the news agency.
The reports came hours after President Donald Trump announced a five-day pause on “any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure" to allow diplomatic negotiations between Tehran and Washington, adding that the US is reaching out to “very solid" figures inside Iran.
Subsequent reports indicated that Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, was representing Iran in the talks with the US, but Ghalibaf denied there were any talks at all.