Foreign & Public Diplomacy

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Pakistan plays a leading role in brokering a U.S.-Iran cease-fire, South Asia remains very vulnerable to the ongoing energy crisis, and China hosts talks between Pakistan and the Taliban.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Pakistan plays a leading role in brokering a U.S.-Iran cease-fire, South Asia remains very vulnerable to the ongoing energy crisis, and China hosts talks between Pakistan and the Taliban.

Pakistan the Mediator

On Tuesday, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week cease-fire, averting for now the possibility of large-scale U.S. attack. The tentative truce marked the culmination of a few weeks of frenetic, high-stakes regional facilitation efforts. Pakistan led from the front on these efforts from beginning to end.

Islamabad’s leading role in facilitating a cease-fire surprised many observers. To start, Pakistan has a deep alliance and mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia, which seemingly ruled it out as a neutral interlocutor. It has no track record of negotiating ends to complex conflicts, and it’s not exactly known for wielding extensive leverage on the global stage.

But from the start, Pakistan’s position in negotiations made a lot of sense. It is a rare country that enjoys warm ties with key players—the main belligerents, of course, but also other countries involved in facilitation efforts, such as China, Egypt, Turkey, and other Gulf states.

Pakistan has an urgent and compelling interest in the end of the conflict because it borders Iran, amplifying the risks of spillover violence. It is also heavily dependent on energy imports from the region, and several million Pakistanis live in the Gulf. Pakistan is already dealing with a tense border with India and waging an overlooked conflict with Afghanistan.

Furthermore, continued war in Iran increases the risk that Saudi Arabia will invoke its mutual defense pact with Pakistan—an accord that has become like an albatross for Islamabad, which wants to avoid getting dragged into the conflict.

So Pakistan had both the capacity to assume the role of facilitator and the will to proactively position itself as one. It wasn’t inclined to wait for a formal invitation from the belligerents that might never have come—instead stepping into a role that other potential mediators might have shied away........

© Foreign Policy