How we got here: Inside Pakistan’s backchannel diplomacy that led to the US-Iran ceasefire

Diplomacy does its best work when no one is looking. In calls that stretch for hours, in proposals dismissed publicly but refined privately, in capitals that deny mediation even as they pass messages.

Over the past two weeks, as missiles crossed the Gulf and ultimatums replaced rhetoric, Pakistan tactfully slipped into that space: not loud enough to claim the stage, but persistent enough to keep the curtains from closing.

After nearly two weeks of sustained, largely unseen engagement, those quiet efforts culminated in a breakthrough Pakistan could no longer keep in the background.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced, early on Wednesday morning, that Pakistan had helped secure an “immediate ceasefire” between Iran and the United States, alongside their respective allies across the region, including in Lebanon, bringing a sudden halt to a conflict that had edged dangerously close to wider war.

The agreement, shaped through a series of proposals, relayed positions, and last-minute interventions, reflected Pakistan’s role as a front-facing broker as well as a steady intermediary. It practised diplomacy in its classic form. There was condemnation without foreclosure and mediation without the vanity of naming it. Calls were made, time was bought, and just enough ambiguity preserved to keep every side in the room.

Queen’s gambit: The opening move

Islamabad could have reached for spectacle. Instead, it chose something far more old-fashioned and durable: dialogue.

Even as the missiles flew and death toll rose, Pakistan offered solidarity to Tehran and pressed restraint to Washington. To Gulf capitals, it framed the war as an economic and security risk spiralling beyond anyone’s control. Each outreach looked modest in isolation. By the time a ceasefire window appeared, diplomacy had seamlessly threaded itself through the conflict.

This is a story of those threads.

It began on March 24 when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed readiness to “facilitate”........

© Dawn Prism