U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets the press after the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday. Foreign ministers of the 32 NATO member states gathered in the Swedish city to finalise preparations for the upcoming Ankara Summit. AFP-Yonhap

DUBAI/HELSINGBORG, Sweden — The United States has seen some progress towards a deal with Iran but more work is required, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday, while Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the two sides' differences were deep and significant.

Intensifying diplomacy to end the conflict, Pakistan's military chief arrived in Tehran, Friday to press on with mediation efforts, and Iranian media reported that Iran's foreign minister and Pakistan's interior minister had met there.

Qatar also sent a negotiating team to the Iranian capital to try to resolve the sides' main differences, six weeks into a fragile ceasefire.

While some gaps have been narrowed, there are still sticking points over Iran's enriched uranium and control over the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure since the start of the war has triggered a global energy crisis.

"There's been some progress. I wouldn't exaggerate it. I wouldn't diminish it," Rubio told reporters after a meeting of NATO ministers in Helsingborg in Sweden. "There's more work to be done. We're not there yet. I hope we get there."

Rubio reiterated comments made Thursday that Iran's plans for a tolling system for the strait through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flows were "unacceptable."

"We're dealing with a very difficult group of people, and if it doesn't change, then the president's been clear he has other options," Rubio said.

He also said the U.S. had not asked the NATO military alliance for help on the Strait of Hormuz but that there needed to be a Plan B if Iran refuses to reopen the waterway.

Two days after presenting the Iranians with the latest U.S. message in negotiations, Pakistani Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi held another round of talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Pakistan's army later announced Field Marshal Asim Munir's arrival in Tehran but gave no further details.

Source: Korea Times News