The Congress on Tuesday termed reports of Pakistan acting as an intermediary between the US-Israel bloc and Iran a “severe setback” for India, alleging that Islamabad’s diplomatic outreach has outpaced New Delhi despite recent military gains.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said multiple reports in leading international media outlets have identified Pakistan as one of the intermediaries being used between the US and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other.

"If these reports are true, they represent a severe setback and rebuff to India - and it is all attributable to the self-styled Vishwaguru," Ramesh said on X.

"For over a year, it has been abundantly clear that in spite of our undoubted military successes in Operation Sindoor, the sad reality is that thereafter Pakistan's diplomatic engagement and narrative management has been markedly superior to that of the Modi government," he said.

The Opposition party asserted that Pakistan, which had been facing political, social, economic and global challenges, has managed to regain strategic relevance.

"President Trump warmly and repeatedly embraced the man whose incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric formed the backdrop to the Pahalgam terror attacks on April 22 2025, and hosted Field Marshall Asim Munir twice in the White House (including for an unprecedented lunch). The Pakistani establishment has developed a cosy relationship with President Trump's immediate circle," he claimed.

Ramesh also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy choices.

"Mr. Modi's ill-advised visit to Israel, that ended just two days before the unprovoked US-Israel aerial assaults on Iran began, will go down in our political history as a singularly disastrous choice - one that has made us retreat from a position where we could and should have mediated," the Congress leader said.

The prime minister's "huglomacy" stands brutally exposed, he said, adding that the country is being forced to pay a price for this.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Washington was in talks with a senior Iranian figure to end the ongoing conflict, though he declined to identify the interlocutor.

Speaking to reporters at the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, Trump made it clear that the US was not in talks with the second Supreme Leader, a reference to Ayatollah Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei.

According to reports, Iran has denied being in talks with the US, but admitted that some countries in the region were making efforts to reduce tensions.

Axios news website quoted a US source as saying that Turkiye, Egypt, and Pakistan have been passing messages between the US and Iran over the past two days.

The foreign ministers of the three countries held separate talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the US source told Axios.

The president said Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy for the Middle East, and Jared Kushner spoke with their Iranian counterparts on Sunday.

However, Trump declined to say to whom Witkoff was speaking, saying he did not want them to be killed.

Starting February 28, the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The joint strikes came after days of build-up with US President Donald Trump ramping up the pressure on Tehran to agree to a new deal on its nuclear programme.

Iran's retaliation escalated the war to the entire Gulf region.