ISRAEL and the USA launched their air offensive on Iran on the 28th of February 2026 and the world community especially countries of Asia were thrown into turmoil. The biggest economies of Asia like China, japan, South Korea, India and Pakistan and the emerging markets like Vietnam and Thailand rely to a great extent on oil from the gulf region and LNG for power generation, The war in Iran and the subsequent blockage of the Strait of Hormuz threatened the entire regions industrial and agricultural output. Pakistan was a diplomatic outcast and pariah not very long ago but today it is a trusted regional partner and mediator between the USA and Iran to end the war in the Middle East and this is definitely a great diplomatic victory for Pakistan all credit to the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the army chief Field Marshall Asim Munir.
As the war raged across the Middle East with the fear of other Gulf countries jumping into the fray Pakistan emerged as the key mediator to help deliver a two weeks pause in the deadly duel between Iran and the USA, with the Pakistani Prime Minster making a public appeal for immediate ceasefireIran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hailed the role of Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir in mediating the talks, expressing “gratitude and appreciation” for their “tireless efforts to end the war in the region”.Pakistan’s success as a mediator stems from its close ties with the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China, and has enhanced its geopolitical clout, with economists and experts saying it could mark a “durable upgrade” in Pakistan’s regional and global diplomatic standing.
These developments show that Pakistan has become a central player in helping to end a conflict that has killed thousands and started an energy crisis that threatened the economies of many countries. Pakistan was faced with a huge fuel crisis because of its dependence on oil from the gulf region but the nuclear armed Pakistan managed to leverage its close ties with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the USA and China to provide a communication channel between the fighting nations and passed messages between both sides during the last few weeks. This is a major diplomatic coup for Pakistan and one of its biggest foreign policy success stories in decades” said Michael Kugelman resident senior fellow for South Asia at Atlantic Council, based in Washington “It helped avert at least for now one of the most serious conflicts the world has seen in in years”.
In his post that announced the two weeks ceasefire, PM Shehbaz Sharif invited delegations of the USA and Iran for peace talks in Islamabad 0n 10th April to negotiate a final end to the war. Whitehouse press secretary Karoline Leavitt said discussions about the next phase of the talks were on going bit nothing is final and the Iranian media reported that parliament speaker Mohammed BagharGhalibaf will leade the Iranian delegation to the peace talks. The New York Times cited three Iranian officials that Iran accepted the ceasefire following a last minute intervention by China which asked Iran to show flexibility and defuse tensions and Trump himself told a French news agency that China was involved in getting Iran to agree to a ceasefire.
All eyes are now Islamabad and the world waits with abated breath for the successful outcome of these talks. Just a few days’ earlier China and Pakistan had issued a joint five point initiative which called for an immediate ceasefire in the war and the safe passage of ships in the Strait of Hormuz. This is not the first time that Pakistan has played the role of intermediary for the USA. In July 1971 when President Nixon was planning a diplomatic coup Pakistan facilitated the super-secret trip of Henry Kissinger to Beijing from Islamabad. This trip eventually resulted in diplomatic relations between China and the USA and China than got its well reserved seat in the United Nations.Pakistan’s latest role as mediator in the Iran war stems from close ties with the Trump regime following the war with India in May 2025 when Pakistan stood solidly behind Trump efforts to broker a deal between the two warring countries and nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize hailing his peacemaking efforts.
FM Munir had many meetings with American officials in Washington DC and he was called “my favorite field marshal” by Donald Trump. Pakistan has historic warm and friendly ties with Iran and the Gulf states that were hit hard by the Iranian attacks and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan also has a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia and had to find a solution to the war to avoid being dragged into the conflict.
Apart from increasing its geopolitical status, Pakistan has some serious economic reasons to get involved. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz blocked energy supplies for the world that left Pakistan very vulnerable because majority of its oil and gas pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Pakistan has a very strong incentive to try to resolve this conflict and make sure that it will not face a major energy crisis.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad
