Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Iran and the United States are still at war. Masoud Pezeshkian is the president of Iran. He is in New York this week. He is talking to other world leaders at the United Nations.
On Thursday, Pezeshkian met the prime minister of Pakistan. His name is Shehbaz Sharif. Pezeshkian said Iran still likes an old peace plan. The plan is called the Islamabad Memorandum.
Pezeshkian wants the United States to sign the plan again. He wants this to happen before November. In November, Americans will vote in new elections.
The peace plan broke in July. Ships had problems near the Strait of Hormuz. Then the war started again. Many people hope the two countries can stop fighting soon.
- president
- the leader of a country
- meeting
- when people come together to talk
- peace
- a time with no fighting or war
- plan
- an idea for what to do
- ship
- a large boat that travels on the sea
- war
- fighting between countries
- vote
- to choose a leader in an election
- sign
- to write your name to agree to something
Level 2 — Elementary
Iran and the United States remain locked in conflict, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian traveled to New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly. He used the trip to push for new diplomacy.
On Thursday, Pezeshkian met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the assembly. He told Sharif that Iran still finds the Islamabad Memorandum, a ceasefire agreement signed in June, fully acceptable.
Pezeshkian said he wants the United States to return to the memorandum before the November midterm elections. Pakistan has acted as a mediator between Washington and Tehran throughout the conflict.
The Islamabad Memorandum collapsed in early July, when Iranian forces attacked commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the United States answered with airstrikes. Since then, both sides have exchanged strikes, and the region remains tense.
- diplomacy
- the work of managing relations between countries
- mediator
- a person or country that helps two sides agree
- memorandum
- a written agreement between groups
- ceasefire
- an agreement to stop fighting
- midterm
- an election held in the middle of a president's term
- collapse
- to suddenly fail or break down
- hostilities
- acts of fighting or war
- conflict
- a serious disagreement or fight
Level 3 — Intermediate
Speaking on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian renewed his call for a diplomatic resolution to Iran's ongoing conflict with the United States, describing the collapsed Islamabad Memorandum as still fully acceptable to Tehran.
In a meeting Thursday with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has served as a key mediator between Washington and Tehran, Pezeshkian said Iran wanted the United States to return to the memorandum before America's November midterm elections, a timeline that suggests Tehran sees a narrow political window for renewed diplomacy.
The Islamabad Memorandum, finalized in June and briefly signed remotely by President Trump and Pezeshkian, unraveled on July 7 when Iranian forces attacked commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Washington responded with airstrikes, effectively ending the ceasefire and reigniting hostilities that have continued for months.
Sharif, for his part, expressed deep concern over the prolonged conflict and urged both sides toward restraint and de-escalation, underscoring that implementing the memorandum remained essential to regional stability. Analysts note that Pezeshkian's remarks mark one of several competing Iranian proposals floated at the UNGA this week, alongside a separate seven-day plan presented by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
- renewed
- started again after a pause
- resolution
- a solution to a disagreement or problem
- sidelines
- the edges of a main event, away from the official program
- unraveled
- fell apart or came undone
- transiting
- passing through a place on the way somewhere else
- de-escalation
- a reduction in the intensity of a conflict
- narrow
- small in range or extent
- competing
- trying to succeed over others of the same kind
Level 4 — Advanced
Addressing the diplomatic corridors of the 81st United Nations General Assembly rather than its podium, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought this week to resuscitate a peace framework that has already collapsed once, telling Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Tehran regards the Islamabad Memorandum as fully acceptable and urging Washington to recommit to it ahead of November's midterm elections.
The timeline is telling. By anchoring his appeal to the American electoral calendar, Pezeshkian implicitly wagers that a White House facing voters might be more receptive to de-escalation than one insulated from immediate political consequence, a calculation that assumes Iranian patience can outlast a finite legislative window.
The memorandum's history offers little reassurance. Finalized in June after protracted negotiation and signed remotely by President Trump and Pezeshkian, it disintegrated within weeks when Iranian forces struck commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz on July 7, prompting American airstrikes that reignited a conflict which has since claimed civilian lives on multiple occasions, including a widely condemned strike on a wedding gathering in Hormozgan province.
Sharif's role as intermediary, meanwhile, underscores Pakistan's delicate balancing act: a nuclear-armed neighbor of Iran with its own fraught relationship with Washington, Islamabad has positioned itself as indispensable to any settlement while carefully avoiding the appearance of favoring either side. Whether Pezeshkian's overture represents genuine flexibility or merely rhetorical positioning ahead of a difficult midterm season for his American counterpart remains, for now, an open question, particularly given that it arrived alongside a separate and more detailed seven-day proposal from Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi just days earlier.
- resuscitate
- to revive something that has failed or nearly died
- recommit
- to promise again to follow through on an agreement
- insulated
- protected or shielded from an outside effect
- disintegrated
- broke apart completely
- intermediary
- a person or party that helps two sides communicate
- indispensable
- absolutely necessary; unable to be done without
- overture
- an initial approach meant to open discussion or negotiation
- rhetorical
- concerned with style or effect rather than genuine substance
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