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The high-stakes diplomacy that led to Pakistan hosting US-Iran peace talks
As Pakistan celebrates its success in helping negotiate a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, its leaders are preparing to host the peace talks.
A two-day holiday was declared in the country's capital of Islamabad ahead of the talks, which are due to begin on Saturday.
Whether or not they will actually go ahead has yet to be confirmed, but the city has readied itself all the same. The streets have become quieter as about 10,000 police officers and security forces are deployed.
The stakes for the world are high – countries across the globe are keen to see an end to the fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery where about 20% of the global oil supply flowed through before the war.
But they are also high for Pakistan in other ways.
The South Asian nation will face a potential "nightmare scenario" if negotiations collapse, and it gets dragged into fighting with its neighbour Iran, says Abdul Basit, a South Asia expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This could happen as Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia last year - and Islamabad has since "made it clear that it will honour its commitment given to the Saudis", says Basit.
This could result in "three borders of Pakistan [becoming] hot", Basit explains, referring to Pakistan's existing tensions with its other neighbours Afghanistan and India. "And Pakistan is fighting two full-fledged insurgencies in two of the four provinces. Pakistan cannot afford that."
Yet pride and excitement is taking over Pakistani social media, with different memes going viral.
"It is a victory in the sense that no other country in the world was able to broker the ceasefire and we were on the verge of a possible catastrophe. Pakistan averted that," says Basit.
The success is very much needed for a country that has endured years of political unrest, a fragile economy on the brink of a debt default only two years ago, and intense rivalry with India.
So how did Pakistan pull off this feat?
Pakistan is in a unique position as it is trusted by the US, Iran and the Gulf countries.
The reconciliation process is led by Pakistan's military chief Asim Munir, whom US President Donald Trump calls his "favourite field marshal", according to Mushahid Hussain Syed, a senator belonging to the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League.
Munir is arguably the most powerful man in Pakistan, a country where the army has long played a predominant role in politics.
Soon after the start of Trump's second term, Munir started building rapport with the US president and gave him "two early wins", says Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistan ambassador to the US and UN.
The field marshal, acting on CIA intelligence, handed over the alleged mastermind behind the 2021 Kabul airport bombing when Americans were evacuating from Afghanistan. The suicide attack killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 US service members.
"Trump was so grateful that he mentioned this in his first address to the Congress," Lodhi says.
The second win, Lodhi says, was "the way Pakistan conveyed to him that he had played a pivotal role in preventing a wider war with India". Pakistan is one of the few countries that have nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize – which he has long coveted.
Remember that Trump wasn't really getting much joy from the tariff war that he was imposing practically on every country in the world. So, he really needed what he got from Pakistan.
Pakistan has also promised access to its critical minerals, which the US sees as a national-security interest. In September 2025, Pakistan's Frontier Works Organisation – the country's major miner of critical minerals, which operates under the military – signed a $500m investment deal with a US company. The ceremony took place at the Prime Minister House, with Munir in attendance.
Then, in January, Pakistan signed an agreement with an affiliate of World Liberty Financials, the cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Trump and his family, which will potentially integrate its stablecoin into the country's digital-payment system. It has bolstered the country's ties with Trump's circle too.
However, these close ties did not stop Pakistan officially condemning the first US-Israeli attacks in Iran. But when Iran bombed the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, a military ally, Pakistan also issued a strongly worded statement against Iran.
On 7 April, Pakistan abstained from a UN Security Council resolution urging states to coordinate efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Syed calls it "one-sided" as the solution does not mention that the US and Israel attacked first.
This "principled stance" and "balanced approach" has helped to enhance the trust of Iran and other Gulf countries, says Syed.
It is with these countries that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has played a crucial role in the negotiations, former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Aizaz Chaudhry says.
Over the past five weeks, Sharif and his deputy, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, spoke with more than a dozen world leaders and senior officials in Washington, Moscow, Beijing, key European capitals, Turkey, Egypt and GCC states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
On the day when the ceasefire was announced, Sharif said he had a "warm and substantive conversation" with Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, who "reaffirmed Iran's participation in the upcoming negotiations and expressed appreciation for Pakistan's efforts".
It seems Sharif has been able to leverage Pakistan's long-standing relationship with Iran on this occasion. The two countries share a 920km border with Iran and have been cooperating for decades as a result, former Pakistan ambassador to Iran Asif Durrani says.
They also share other concerns: militants and the "unstable" Afghanistan.
"For the past five decades, we both have been facing instability in our countries in the form of refugees," Durrani says.
Also not to be underestimated is the role religion has played in fostering trust and connection. While Pakistan is a Sunni-majority country, it has one of the world's largest Shia populations. Every year, thousands of Pakistanis travel to Iran, the biggest Shia country, on pilgrimage.
But as Saturday ticks closer, it is unclear if Pakistan's efforts will result in the promised peace talks. The ceasefire is under growing strain, and whether the two sides will actually turn up is still in question.
"The next phase - reaching a comprehensive agreement - is difficult, and Pakistan should continue to facilitate the process," Chaudhry says.
Israel "is already trying to undermine the ceasefire by undertaking this fierce assault on Lebanon", Lodhi says. Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed more than 300 people in Lebanon, and Israel says the Iran ceasefire does not include Lebanon.
"There is this concern in Pakistan for sure amongst officials. And on that front, the responsibility and the onus rests on Trump to restrain Israel," she adds.
Pakistan has already "played its part" to foster peace, Durrani says. "As a broker, mediator or facilitator, your job is to take the horse to water. You can't make it drink. It is up to the parties to make use of that opportunity which is provided by Pakistan."
Additional reporting by Stephen Hawkes and Grace Tsoi
Source: BBC
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