Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni is traveling to Islamabad on Monday for talks with Pakistani officials, in the latest sign of a diplomatic move parallel to the war, as Washington and Tehran announced they remain open to negotiations despite the collapse of a memorandum of understanding and the continuation of mutual strikes.

A source in the Pakistani Interior Ministry told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Momeni will hold talks with Pakistani officials, without disclosing the agenda of the visit.

Reuters later quoted two Pakistani government sources as saying that Momeni had asked Islamabad to resume its role as a mediator in the conflict between Iran and the United States. The two sources said the visit is the Iranian Interior Minister's second to Pakistan in less than a week.

Reports had stated that Momeni would carry a message from President Masoud Pezeshkian to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. No official Iranian or Pakistani comment was issued regarding the content of the message.

Momeni had previously participated in contacts related to mediation and met with Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who has visited Tehran more than once.

His visit comes after Pakistan said last week that it would continue to encourage the parties to stop the violence and resume the technical discussions stipulated in the memorandum of understanding signed by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian in mid-June.

An Iranian woman passes by an anti-US mural on the wall of the former embassy in central Tehran (EPA).

However, the visit is taking place this time under radically different circumstances; the ceasefire has collapsed, the US has resumed its strikes inside Iran, and Tehran has announced it is suspending the implementation of its obligations under the memorandum, while officials from both sides have exchanged accusations of violating the agreement that was supposed to pave the way for a permanent settlement within 60 days.

Nevertheless, statements issued in Washington and Tehran over the past few hours indicated that channels of communication remain open, and both parties are moving toward finding a new negotiating formula that may go beyond the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.

Proposals via mediators

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that mediators are still conveying messages and proposals between Tehran and Washington, and that the Iranian diplomatic apparatus has remained active in recent days in conjunction with military operations.

During a press conference in Tehran, he added: "We have been informed through mediators and have received messages, without going into details, but the important thing is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days, and ideas have been conveyed to us through some mediators."

Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official as saying that mediators had presented a proposal to Tehran to halt attacks for 10 days, with the aim of calming the war and finding ways to revive the temporary agreement reached by the two sides last month. The official did not reveal the identity of the mediators or the details of the discussions related to the proposal.

Baghaei declined to disclose the content of the proposals or clarify whether Tehran had responded to them, but said that the mediators are working to prevent further escalation.

He added that Iranian forces will continue what he described as "defensive military operations" as long as the US attacks continue.

Pezeshkian receives the Pakistani delegation headed by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran last June (Iranian Presidency).

Qatar and Pakistan play a key role in conveying messages between Iran and the United States, while China is also insisting on calling for an end to escalation and the resumption of negotiations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently visited Qatar, and reports indicated that he met with his Qatari counterpart during the visit.

Baghaei rejected separating war from diplomacy as two opposing options, saying: "I reject the duality of either war or diplomacy; diplomacy is a tool through which we seek to achieve our national interests, just like war."

He added that the diplomatic apparatus is working in coordination with the armed forces, in a formulation that reflects the Iranian government's attempt to keep the door to negotiations open without appearing to be backing down under the pressure of US strikes.

June memorandum

However, Baghaei clarified that the continuation of contacts does not mean that Iran is prepared to return to the previous agreement. He said that Tehran will not implement the memorandum of understanding signed last month, accusing Washington of violating its text and spirit.

He added: "The other side not only failed to implement it; it violated it and acted contrary to its text and spirit," adding: "We have announced, for our part, that we will not implement it. This is quite clear."

He said the agreement included mutual obligations, and that its implementation by Tehran has become "practically impossible" after the United States, according to the Iranian narrative, breached its commitments.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal Affairs, had announced on Saturday that Tehran had suspended all its obligations under the memorandum and that it is not currently applying any of its provisions.

The United States has not officially announced its withdrawal from the document, but Trump declared the end of the ceasefire, and his administration has since treated the memorandum as an agreement that Iran has violated and which has lost the basis upon which it was built.

Despite this, Baghaei did not rule out holding new talks. He said that negotiations, like war, are a means used by Iran to safeguard its interests, without specifying the conditions that might prompt Tehran to move from exchanging messages to actual negotiations.

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On the US side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington "remains open" to negotiations, at a time when the US military was beginning its ninth night of strikes on Iran.

Rubio said that US officials "will continue to try" to push for a long-term peace with Tehran, adding that the Trump administration remains open to a diplomatic solution.

He told reporters: "Iranian officials continue to send signals that they want to talk and negotiate, but it is their behavior that we are responding to," according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

When asked if Tehran was ready to enter into talks, he said he had received "direct" signals, and others "through multiple channels from other countries."

Rubio stipulated that any diplomatic path must be "genuine" and lead to an agreement that Iran is prepared to commit to. He said: "We have tried several times with Iran, and we will continue to try."

Stricter conditions

Mohsen Rezaei, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guard and military advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader, said on Saturday that returning to the June memorandum was no longer possible, and that any future negotiations would require the drafting of a new document due to changed circumstances.

He added that Iranian demands were no longer limited to the obligations contained in the memorandum; they now include compensation for losses and what he described as "revenge." He said the United States had used a combination of pressure and negotiation to push Iran to make further concessions.

Rezaei continued that the policy of "war and negotiation together" was over, and warned that if US strikes continued for another 2 or 3 days, it would push Iran to shift from limited responses to what he called "the stage of attack and complete destruction."