Pakistan forced to save US-Iran talks as war collapses | US-Israel War on Iran News

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has denied allegations that it hid Iranian warplanes from the United States fragile fire stop helped broker between Washington and Tehran appear vulnerable.

The statement by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday came hours after US President Donald Trump said that the deal reached last month was a “big life saver” while rejecting Iran’s latest peace proposal as “garbage” that he had not yet finished reading.

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Trump’s comments followed a CBS News report on Monday that Iran had moved several military aircraft, including an RC-130 reconnaissance aircraft, to Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan near Rawalpindi. April 8 ceasefirewhich can protect them from US wars.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on Tuesday called the report “misleading and interesting”, saying that the plane arrived as part of the talks related to the talks in Islamabad between the US and Iranian officials on April 11. Pakistan said that both Iranian and US planes used the base.

“The Iranian aircraft that was grounded in Pakistan arrived during the ceasefire and is not related to any security or safety issue,” the ministry said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated that the presence of any foreign armed forces in the area cannot be concealed.

“Claims to the contrary are fanciful, misleading, and out of touch with reality,” it said, adding that Pakistan had “always acted as an impartial, constructive and credible facilitator” throughout the process.

Washington complains

The denial, however, did little to quell concerns in Washington.

A CNN report published a few hours after the CBS news said that Trump administration officials believe that Pakistan has been sharing “a much better view of Iran’s position with the US than it actually reflects” while questioning whether Islamabad is “reflecting Trump’s anger”.

A Pakistani official told Al Jazeera that Islamabad has been as direct with both sides as any non-political party can be because mediation requires impartiality to succeed rather than favoritism.

“The goal is to resolve difficult, historic, very important disputes rather than getting brownie points or talking heads,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the media.

US Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump’s ally and member of his Republican Party, called for a “complete review” of Pakistan. role of mediatorhe says on X that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the CBS report is correct.

Analysts, however, said the dispute is unlikely to do much damage to Islamabad’s position.

“Pakistan has done more than many expected. Imposing sanctions in places where people do not trust each other was not a mistake,” Syed Ali Zia Jaffery, deputy director at the Center for Security, Strategy and Policy Research at the University of Lahore, told Al Jazeera.

He added that Tehran and Washington’s continued reliance on Pakistan shows that these claims will have little effect.

“As long as the two heads believe that Islamabad is still a mediator and a reliable mediator, such reports will have no problem. This is a multi-party war, which leaves room for spoilers to disrupt the situation,” Jaffery said.

He speaks effortlessly

The source of recent tensions is Washington’s rejection of an Iranian candidate a plea for peace it was delivered through Pakistan on Sunday.

Iranian media said Tehran’s statement included retaliatory strikes against the US, full Iranian control over the war Hormuz Riverthe end of sanctions and the release of its stockpiled assets while insisting that nuclear weapons talks be changed in the future.

Trump, writing on his Social Truth website, described the idea as “VERY UNCOMFORTABLE”.

“I would say that ceasing to fight is at the highest level of life support,” he said later in the Oval Office, describing the situation as “when a doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has about a 1 percent chance of survival.'”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected this, calling the proposal “reasonable and generous” and saying that Tehran wanted “Iran’s legitimate rights”.

Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, from Iran discussion leaderhe spoke with great disgust.

“Our armed forces are ready to give a lesson-giving response to any insult,” he tweeted on Monday. “There is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as outlined in the 14 points.”

The main disagreement has not changed.

Washington wants Iran to stop its actions nuclear program and providing its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent, close to weapons-grade levels.

Tehran has insisted that nuclear talks can only follow the lifting of sanctions and the end of the US naval blockade it was put into its docks on April 13.

Since the talks in Islamabad ended without agreement between the US and Iran on April 12, Pakistan acted as a mediator, carrying ideas between the two sides, which have not met directly since then.

On May 4, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Isaac Dar spoke to Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi about Islamabad’s mediation efforts.

On the same day, 22 crew members boarded an Iranian submarine MV Touskawho were captured by US forces, were transferred to Pakistan before being transferred to Iran in what Islamabad described as a confidence-building measure between both sides.

Qatar has also supported the mediation process. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Miami, Florida, on Saturday and Doha pledged to support “Pakistan-led mediation efforts”.

Jaffery said the ceasefire had been “broken” as the US imposed its military limits even though both sides had been keen to avoid a return to full-scale war.

“I don’t think that physical activity is out of date persecuted and banned along the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

Muhanad Seloom, director of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, agreed.

What is expected in the next few days, “is a step-by-step action, possibly against the assets of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) that are harassing the vehicles of Hormuz, modified for Iran to take without hitting the US bases in the Gulf”.

Seloom pointed to recent comments from US Energy Secretary Chris Wright “returning to the military approach to pave the way”. This, the expert told Al Jazeera, revealed that the US is looking at “the occupation of Hormuz, not fighting the regime”.

Way forward

Trump is expected to discuss the Iran crisis with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to Beijing this week as Washington hopes Beijing can use its influence with Tehran. China is Iran’s biggest economic and strategic partner.

Araghchi met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week in Beijing, where China reaffirmed its “cooperation” with Iran while calling for a diplomatic process.

Iran’s foreign minister is also expected to attend the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in India on Thursday and Friday along with the top diplomats of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both of whom are involved in backchannel talks.

“Trump is going weak to Beijing,” Jaffery said, adding that China could not resolve Washington’s Strait of Hormuz issue.

On the details of Araghchi, he said, Tehran wants to “buy a permanent agreement, not a ceasefire”.

The importance of Pakistan, he said, is still not even the diplomatic methods that have emerged.

“Both sides agree and talk about it,” he said.

Seloom said the number of countries participating in mediation is good for peace.

“For the sake of ending the war, this is becoming entrenched. Many parties with skin in the game raise the price of the fall for everyone,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with the CBS News 60 Minutes program that was released on Sunday that Israel considers the conflict unresolved.

If Iran’s nuclear weapons could not be removed from the talks, he said, Israel and the US agreed that “we can make them military again”.

Former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani offered a broader assessment in a statement to Al Jazeera on Monday.

The weapons in the Strait of Hormuz, he said, were “the most dangerous consequences” of the conflict, warning that the crisis could end anywhere.