There are some stories whose cruelty lies not in any single tragedy but in the everyday injustice they reveal. Maritime workers afloat in the Persian Gulf have become disposable tokens in a conflict they did not start. When the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told the UN Security Council on Monday that shipping and seafarers should never be used as leverage in geopolitical conflicts, he was not indulging in cliché.
At least 29 vessels have been attacked since the beginning of the crisis, resulting in the deaths of 10 seafarers and damage to many vessels. About 20,000 seafarers and 1,600 vessels?still remain in the Gulf.
The Strait of Hormuz carries a fifth of the world’s oil and a third of internationally traded fertilisers. Since Washington and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, commercial traffic has almost collapsed. An average of 138 ships sailed through the strait each day before the conflict, but now five vessels make the journey.
Secretary?General António Guterres has already warned the Security Council that the disruption already has “cascading” effects on energy, food and trade, appealing bluntly, “Open the strait. Let ships pass. No tolls. No discrimination”.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meanwhile, claimed that even if Iran is serious about a deal, Washington would never “normalize” a system where Iran decides who uses a waterway and how much they must pay.
In this chaos, Pakistan has been a reluctant but decisive actor. From the very first day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir have been coaxing Washington and Tehran to take a step back from their positions and pursue peace. Pakistan’s leaders know the stakes better than most. Their diplomacy has not yielded a settlement, yet it has prevented an immediate resumption of bombardment when the cease?fire expired. It is time their efforts were recognised as more than opportunistic showmanship.
As of now, neither side is ready to look at the bigger picture or even acknowledge how civilians are paying for the hubris of their leaders. Lebanon’s health ministry, for example, reports 2,521 people killed and 7,804 wounded since Israel’s latest offensive began. More than three thousand lives have been lost in Iran. Such costs are invisible in Washington’s talk of nuclear red lines or Tehran’s bravado about becoming a key reference for global needs.
The bigger conversation must move beyond tolls and rockets, and it needs journalists willing to ask uncomfortable questions. Why does international law bend under great?power pressure? In a region full of blame and bluster, Pakistan’s call for diplomacy is not for optics. It is a plea for sanity in a war that has already stolen too many lives. *