As the Pakistani capital of two million people goes into a diplomatic overdrive again, anticipating hosting the second round of US-Iran peace talks, Islamabad’s serene image aptly reflects the calmness and control that broadly define the salvaging stance of its mediating leaders.
In the second round of peace talks, the two conflicting sides will again be representing the world’s strongest military and the lone superpower set against the world’s most valiant and undeterred nation. This is why at the negotiating table, as on the battlefield, these two sides pose a symmetrical, rather than an asymmetrical, face-off: what Iran does not have in terms of power, wealth, and military might, it makes up for in faith, forbearance, and fearlessness.
Pakistan emerged as the composed and coaxingly communicative arbitrator between the US and Iran, as it managed the first round of peace talks on the 11th of April in Islamabad, following its two-week conditional ceasefire enforcement at the eleventh hour on the 8th of April, shortly before the US president’s deadline to annihilate a full civilisation.
And as the PM left for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Türkiye this Wednesday to garner support and seek consultation for hosting a second round of mediation between Iran and the US, Pakistan is doing what other nations of the world could not manage.
The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed that Pakistan is the chosen one, the “only mediator in these negotiations while there have been many countries around the world who want to offer their help.”
Guided by the Prime Minister’s humility, the Field Marshal’s strategic mindset, and the Foreign Minister’s diplomacy, Pakistan’s leading trio has achieved more than what the 80-year-old UN could in this conflict.
During these talks, Pakistan was not reporting outcomes but was manufacturing possibilities – it was doing far more complex tasks than carrying messages
And while Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visits are a ‘push for peace’ initiative, steady progress towards formalising a new quadrilateral framework and rapid developments in the Middle East have driven Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye to coordinate more closely on diplomacy and security.
Field Marshal Asim Munir also led a delegation to Tehran on the 15th of April, as part of Pakistan’s feverish diplomacy that reinforces backchannel exchanges with the US and Iran, as Pakistan vies to extend the current ceasefire for another 45 days.
After the first round of talks in Islamabad, and with the two-week US-Iran ceasefire that ends on the 22nd of April looking persistently precarious amid Israel’s strikes on Lebanon despite an announced ceasefire, Pakistan is holding its ground, utilising backchannel, phone, and in-person diplomacy to its best.
As the world cheered Pakistan on for its deft diplomacy the first time around, and again as the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently remarked, “Pakistanis have been incredible mediators throughout this process and we really appreciate their friendship and their efforts to bring this deal to a close,” a question widely debated in the international media was what made Pakistan win the spot of a willing mediator in the first place.
And what subsequently made Trump “more inclined to go to Pakistan”, yet a second time, to hold another round of talks, with the White House’s Karoline Leavitt recently confirming that the talks “would very likely be in the same place as they were the last time.”
Meanwhile, the cherry on this peace-talks cake is the US president hinting on Thursday that he may travel to Islamabad “if a final agreement is signed there.”
The US president’s enchantment with Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s warm relations with Iran and the US, the country’s own stakes as it shares a 90-km border with Iran, and the energy crisis gravely affecting Pakistan, are all factors that might together be the raison d’être for Pakistan fitting into the spot to facilitate the US-Iran peace process, but that’s not all there is to this.
Since the outbreak of the US-Israel war on Iran on the 28th of February, Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has constantly relied on backchannel and telephonic diplomacy, employing a steady stream of phone calls that helped place Islamabad as a ready connector between Washington and Tehran. Both the premier and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar expanded their outreach, holding repeated conversations with counterparts in Tehran, Gulf capitals, Europe, and other key players.
The telephonic and behind-the-doors diplomacy with Gulf leaders and other regional and non-regional players paid dividends. But this overt and covert diplomacy is no mean feat and could not have been carried out by most heads of state of present times with their heads mostly in the clouds or their noses in the air.
What’s more is the urgency, clarity, constant networking, and the ability to ignore cold shoulders and rebuttals and keep advancing against resistance, all requiring stoicism nurtured by humility more than anything else; and humility is a rare trait, rarely defining the narcissistic, egocentric leaderships of today’s hyper-capitalistic, highly polarised, unipolar world.
This not-so-common strength demonstrated by Pakistan’s Prime Minister in these chaotic times has proved to be the most apt diplomatic tool to calm a belligerent, menacing world. These manifestations of mature modesty against malignant madness, as Trump trumpeted his angry outbursts to obliterate a civilisation, or Iran vowed to retaliate, literally averted a colossal disaster on the 7th of April.
In all of Pakistan’s efforts to reach out to world leaders and repeatedly respond to the warring sides (except Israel), never is there a display of conceit by the Pakistani leadership for enabling these ‘miracle meetings’ to take place. Never has there been hesitation in reaching out, in making repeated calls and appeals to regional and world leaders; or ever harbouring haughty or condescending emotions for persistently having to make efforts while repeatedly calling out to the world through telephonic yearnings and social media urgings, all steeped in humility and gratitude.
A look at most of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s X posts and their text reveals extreme modesty in his choice of words, even if drafted by his social media team, where he’s graciously thanking whichever country’s leader he manages to talk to for their cooperation and support—perhaps more than they should be thanking him for spearheading the peace campaign to avert what has already rattled the world and its markets.
The content of the PM’s general messages for world leaders, as well as the subject matter of his X-a-thon posts—which he is as swift at posting as his phone-a-thon endeavours—only reverberates gratefulness and modesty.
This humble, non-aggressive, yet aggressively relentless diplomacy acted as the balancing factor against all hostility, hubristic rhetoric, and expletive-laden explosives, proving to be the pacifying factor—an antidote to the raging venom of global politics and warmongering. Amicable diplomacy countering Trump’s gung-ho gunboat diplomacy.
The deft diplomacy had to continue through the 21-hour marathon peace talks in Islamabad, where high officials from the US and Iran met for the first time since 1979, and though under the shadow of a persistent trust deficit, the talks were the most substantive the two sides had held in 47 years.
During these talks, Pakistan was not reporting outcomes but was manufacturing possibilities. It was doing more complex tasks than carrying messages, since before Pakistan crossed over with any position, it must have first negotiated that position itself: a maximalist demand, a red line that was more political than strategic, a formulation designed for domestic leverage rather than a genuine resolution.
Assessing each demand, understanding what lay beneath the stated positions, and working to find a version that preserved the essence of that demand while also standing a chance of being considered by the other side, are all challenging tasks.
‘Making parallel calculations regarding the minimum each side can accept without losing face, what language would survive a Tehran presser and a Washington briefing simultaneously; what value the Iranian parliamentary speaker can take back home and what can the American vice president take to his president who declared victory days ago,’ are the difficult dynamics that Pakistan was constantly juggling. And with the second round of talks just around the corner, Pakistan will show more of its nifty negotiating capabilities to the world.
By hosting these talks, Pakistan has acted as the de facto representative of every world capital that called for peace, every household whose cost of living depends on the talks, and every childhood lost to war. The Islamabad talks, however many rounds they may entail, have elevated Pakistan’s diplomatic profile as a global peacemaker and epicentre of high-stakes diplomacy, and while hosting the second round of talks, a milestone has already been hit in the country’s placid peace diplomacy.