In the wake of 21 hours of direct peace talks in Islamabad, the Damoclean sword over the Middle East hangs ever lower. US Vice President JD Vance stood before journalists in the wee hours of Sunday and noted that Washington had presented its final and best offer, but Tehran had refused to accept core terms, including a long-term commitment against nuclear weapons.
Nevertheless, Iranian negotiators said trust had yet to be earned and accused the US of overreach, pressing demands ranging from sanctions relief to control over the Strait of Hormuz and war reparations.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed there had still been movement on most points even as he signalled fresh pressure by ordering a naval blockade in the Gulf.
There is a strange habit in our part of the world of treating diplomacy as theatre, and as expected, deflectors were quick to point out that since there was no triumphant handshake and no dramatic communique, the whole exercise was a waste. That is a poor reading of how negotiations of this kind unfold.
Forty-seven years of hostility, layered with sanctions and proxy conflict, were never going to melt away in one sitting. Islamabad did what a serious mediator is meant to do. It got two adversaries into the same room, kept the conversation going, and sent them home still talking rather than trading fresh ultimatums. Hence, its role deserves to be judged on those grounds. A statement from Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar struck the right note for all the right reasons as he urged both parties to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire. That is how grown-up states behave when the negotiating table is still warm.
Equally misplaced is the chatter about why journalists were not spoon-fed more details. Sensitive mediation is not a press junket, and no responsible government was going to brief every turn of the conversation while the talks were underway. Of course, as far as the local journalists are concerned, the deeper problem lies elsewhere.
Pakistan still does not invest enough in specialised reporting, and too many newsrooms treat foreign affairs as a travelling beat handed to whoever is available. Hence, what went down inside the Jinnah Convention Centre is not the state’s failure. It is the industry’s.
Away from the public eye, Pakistan has deployed fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, its first visible military move under a mutual defence pact between the two countries. Some will rush to see a contradiction in that move. They would do well to realise that Pakistan is not operating in a vacuum and trying to prevent a wider war; reassuring a longstanding security partner and protecting itself against the spillover that follows every major rupture in the Gulf. *