If and when a photograph is taken of US Vice-President JD Vance standing next to Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Islamabad this weekend, it will make history.
That moment would mark the highest-level face-to-face talks between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America since the 1979 Islamic Revolution shattered their strong strategic bond and cast a long shadow which still darkens relations to this day.
The two men may not smile. They may not even shake hands.
It would not make this troubled relationship any more easy, any less hostile.
But it would send a signal that both sides want to try to end a war sending shocks worldwide, avoid an even riskier escalation, and turn to diplomacy to do a deal.
There's zero chance though of US President Donald Trump's optimistic prediction of a peace deal within this shaky two-week ceasefire - its terms were contested and broken since the moment it was announced earlier this week.
Even until the eleventh hour, Iranians kept everyone guessing over whether they would still show up while Israel was insisting there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon.
But if serious and sustained talks make a start, it would also mark the most significant push since Trump pulled out of the previous landmark nuclear deal in 2018, during his first term. He dismissed what was widely seen as the foreign policy highlight of the Obama administration as the worst deal in history.
Efforts since then, including during US President Joe Biden's term, made little headway.
But, he cautions, this time is still exponentially harder.
The contrast with the negotiations a decade ago couldn't be starker – the US and Iranian delegations included strong contingents of experienced diplomats and leading physicists. They were also bolstered by senior European diplomats.
In the last rounds in February this year, progress is said to have been made but the two delegations were assisted by the technical expertise of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi. Now these hostilities have shifted the security calculus for all sides.
But most Gulf states are now demanding that the missiles which slammed into their countries need to be on the negotiating table.
Israel, and in particular its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is certain to be on the phone, or rushing to the White House, to ensure deep-seated worries about Iran's threats are addressed.
The moment of truth could be approaching – for all sides. And there's another sobering thought. History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
