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TEHRAN, April 16, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Pakistan's powerful army chief met Iran's parliament speaker on Thursday, Iranian state television said, after Pakistani mediators travelled to Iran to press efforts to end the war with the United States and Israel.

"Field Marshal Asim Munir, Commander of the Pakistan Army, who travelled to our country yesterday, met and held talks with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf... this Thursday morning, April 16," the report said.

After more than five weeks of war that saw the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei and top security official Ali Larijni, Ghalibaf is widely seen as Iran's top negotiator, and he travelled last weekend to Pakistan for a first round of talks with the United States.

There were no further details on the contents of the latest meeting, which came a day after Munir arrived in Tehran with his delegation, bringing what Iranian state television described as a message from the United States.

The first round of talks in Islamabad ended without any breakthrough, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that further talks "would very likely" be in Islamabad.

Munir wore military fatigues in the meeting and Ghalibaf, a veteran of Iran's Revolutionary Guards ideological army, a dark suit and white shirt without a tie as is customary for Iranian officials, pictures broadcast by state media showed.

Ghalibaf and his delegation had on Saturday held closed door talks in Islamabad with US Vice President JD Vance, in the highest level Iran-US contacts since before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said no date had been set for the next round of talks.

Further cementing his status as Iran's key negotiator, Ghalibaf told Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri in telephone talks on Thursday that a ceasefire in Lebanon was "as important" as in Iran.