Pakistan emerges as crucial interlocutor between US and Iran, NYT

US President Donald Trump amplified that offer by posting  a screenshot of the social-media post from PM Sharif on his platform, Truth Social.

On Tuesday, the prime minister again spoke to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian amid stepped up diplomatic contacts, while the Pakistan Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir,  held discussions with President Trump on Sunday, the dispatch said.

“Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has emerged as the key interlocutor between the United States and Iran,” the Times’ correspondent, Elian Peltier, wrote.

“Pakistan’s top government and military officials have nurtured a close relationship with Trump,” the Times said, noting, “They nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize last year and offered partnerships with the United States on counterterrorism, critical minerals and crypto deals — what some Pakistani analysts have referred to as Pakistan’s ‘3Cs’.”

“That effort appears to have earned Mr. Trump’s good graces. Mr. Trump has referred to the army chief as his ‘favourite field marshal,’ and U.S. military officials have called the counterterrorism partnership ‘phenomenal’.”

While several countries have offered to serve as interlocutors with Iran, the dispatch, citing analysts, said Pakistan brings several selling points as a potential mediator.

“They know Iran very well,”  President Trump said last year about Pakistan after a lunch with Field Marshal Munir at the White House in the midst of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.

“It is a non-Arab, Muslim country, like Iran, and it does not host a U.S. military base — sparing it from Iranian strikes, unlike countries in the Gulf. Pakistan shares a 560-mile border with Iran, and nearly a fifth of its 240 million people are Shiite Muslims, one of the largest Shiite communities outside Iran.”

Pakistan, the dispatch added,  has also managed to carefully balance its relationships in the Middle East during the conflict. “The billions of dollars that Pakistani workers remit every year from Arab countries in the Gulf region are crucial for Pakistan’s economy. And with its economy heavily reliant on oil imports — 81 percent of which comes from the Gulf — it was among the first to provide military escorts for its ships through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Shortly after it signed the defence agreement with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan renewed a long-term economic partnership with China, it was pointed out.

At the same time, it said, Pakistani officials have indicated that they want to avoid a confrontation with Iran.

Meanwhile, the United States conveyed a 15-point proposal to Tehran through Pakistan as a potential offramp to the escalating conflict, according to The New York Times .

Citing officials familiar with the diplomatic effort, the dispatch said it remains unclear whether Iran would accept the proposal as a basis for negotiations.

President Trump first alluded to the proposal on Monday, saying Washington and Tehran had held “constructive” discussions aimed at ending the war.