War talks, danger for peacekeepers, and the ‘great insulation’ – Asian Media Report |
Iran prefers Vance as lead negotiator, Indonesia’s Lebanon Blue Helmets ‘targeted’, developing countries seek superpower autonomy, Japanese troops join Philippines’ exercises, power centralised in Vietnam, and alarming loss of forest cover.
West Asian media adopted a note of triumph over Pakistan’s crucial diplomatic role in negotiating a ceasefire in the US-Iran war and organising talks between the two countries.
Journalist Khurram Husain wrote in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that he felt proud to be Pakistani. “This is, quite possibly, the biggest single day in the life of our country,” he said.
Writing in Al Jazeera, columnist Andrew Mitrovica said the thuggish logic of the US and Israel – logic that said enough pain can bend any nation to their imperial designs – had failed. “Today, to borrow a phrase, we are all Iranians,” he wrote.
The triumph was tempered when the US and Israel took the position that the two-week ceasefire did not include Lebanon. The Express Tribune reported that Pakistan would work on including Lebanon and Yemen during the Iran-US talks. The paper quoted Pakistan’s former ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, as saying Pakistan had specifically asked the US if it could rein in Israel and were given an assurance that American would do so.
Indian media had a more sober tone. International affairs expert C Raja Mohan, writing in The Indian Express, said the pause in fighting was welcomed but the path ahead remained forbidding.
The massive divergence between the declared positions of the two sides – Washington’s 15-point proposal and Tehran’s 10-point counter – framed the challenge.
Mohan listed five entrenched contradictions – on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and ballistic missile arsenal; the status of the Strait of Hormuz; Iran’s demand for the lifting of all sanctions; its support for regional allies (or proxies, as the US calls them); and the future regional security architecture (Iran is demanding the complete withdrawal of the US military presence in the region).
“Any attempt to finesse these contradictions will require not only bridging the gap between Washington and Tehran but also navigating divisions within each capital and between the US and its regional allies,” Mohan said.
Dawn published background details of those taking part in the Islamabad talks: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi; Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; US Vice-President JD Vance; Special Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff; and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Iran preferred Vance as lead negotiator, Dawn said, not least because of his earlier position favouring military restraint.
Note: China has regained its position among ASEAN people as the preferred superpower, Singapore’s The Straits Times, reported. An annual state of Southeast Asia survey showed concern over Trump's foreign policies outweighed worries about Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, the paper said.
Jakarta’s peacekeepers caught in a war zone
With a peacekeeping force of 755 personnel, Indonesia is the largest contributor to the operation known as UNIFIL – the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. Indonesian peacekeepers have been in Lebanon for almost 20 years; their bases, posts, convoys and convoy routes are well-known.
Yet they were hit by three attacks between 29 March and 3 April.
It raised a big question, said Indonesian defence analyst Muhammad Fauzan Malufti – whether the contingent........