Pakistan is already getting considerable credit for helping pull the region back from the brink, and rightly so; at a moment when escalation between Iran, Israel and the US was beginning to harden into something wider, Islamabad did not grandstand, issue ritual statements, or watch events from a safe distance. It moved with restraint, clarity and a clear sense of what was at stake.
Field Marshal Asim Munir’s three-day visit to Iran focused on sustaining de-escalation, while the prime minister’s outreach to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye kept a fragile regional alignment intact, and the four-country consultation involving Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt reinforced a diplomatic line centred on dialogue. More and more countries are now publicly saying they support Pakistan and its framework for lasting US-Iran peace.
That is not a minor achievement. Pakistan stepped in because it understood the cost of failure better than most capitals now speaking the language of deterrence. It knows what regional upheaval looks like when it reaches ordinary households, when fuel costs jump, freight slows, markets panic and economic fragility deepens. Islamabad did not approach this crisis as a prestige exercise. It approached it as a state with dangerous proximity and enough diplomatic reach to make itself useful.
The problem now lies elsewhere. Even as Pakistan’s diplomacy earns praise, the ceasefire it helped midwife is being tested by the conduct of bigger powers. Reports of continued strikes in Lebanon, left-wing chatter in Washington of controlling Hormuz without Iranian interference, and preparations to intercept Iran-linked shipping all raise the same question. What exactly was being guaranteed when the region was told that de-escalation would hold?
The problem now lies elsewhere. Even as Pakistan’s diplomacy earns praise, the ceasefire it helped midwife is being tested by the conduct of bigger powers. Reports of continued strikes in Lebanon, talk in Washington of controlling Hormuz without Iranian interference, and preparations to intercept Iran-linked shipping all raise the same question. What exactly was being guaranteed when the region was told that de-escalation would hold?
That is why America’s credibility is now under scrutiny. Pakistan has already done the hard part. It used trust where trust was scarce and helped secure a pause when the region needed one. Desperately. If that pause is now weakened by coercive moves on the water and renewed military pressure elsewhere, the burden does not fall on Islamabad. It falls on those who offered assurances that the ceasefire would stick. *