{"id":382081,"date":"2026-04-08T21:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/382081\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:45:26","slug":"how-pakistan-secured-biggest-diplomatic-win-in-years-with-iran-ceasefire-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/382081\/","title":{"rendered":"How Pakistan secured \u2018biggest diplomatic win in years\u2019 with Iran ceasefire | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pakistan\u2019s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits to try to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, it looked like the conflict might instead be escalating into Islamabad\u2019s worst nightmare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a cabinet meeting held at about 5pm on Tuesday, Pakistan\u2019s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was morose. \u201cWe should brace ourselves for the impact of the war,\u201d he told his cabinet ministers. \u201cThe situation has really become very bleak. The chance of peace has become dim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier that day, any hope of a ceasefire looked diminished. Israeli strikes had devastated an Iranian gas plant and Iranian strikes had struck a critical Saudi Arabian petrochemical complex, prompting fears it would push the Gulf country closer to joining the war. Furious at what they saw as a \u201cdangerous escalation\u201d, Pakistan\u2019s military top brass released an unusually damning public statement against Tehran, accusing it of \u201cspoiling\u201d efforts at peace.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Washington, Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric had escalated to new levels of hysteria, as he threatened that Iran\u2019s \u201cwhole civilisation will die tonight\u201d \u2013 including bombing power plants and bridges \u2013 if they did not agree to his demands for a ceasefire, with a deadline set for the end of the day.<\/p>\n

A man reading news of the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Photograph: Rehan Khan\/EPA<\/p>\n

For Pakistan\u2019s government and its military, the country\u2019s de facto rulers, helping to mediate an end to the war was not simply a matter of prestige; its economy, defence, national security and sectarian harmony depended on it. A freshly signed defence pact with Saudi Arabia meant that if Riyadh chose to enter the war, they would be dragged into it too. \u201cWe were in a very fragile situation and desperate for negotiations to begin,\u201d said one Pakistani official.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, Asim Munir, the powerful army chief<\/a>, and Asim Malik, the country\u2019s head of army intelligence and national security adviser, carried on working the phones. Munir occupied a uniquely advantageous position as a peace broker, boasting both a strong personal rapport with Trump and a longstanding relationship with Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n

In a typically bullish press conference in the White House on Wednesday, the US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, would later claim Iran had \u201cbegged\u201d for the ceasefire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pakistani officials, however, have a different version of events. Both sides wanted an end to the fighting, they said, but the push for a ceasefire had come primarily from Trump, who was \u201ctrapped\u201d in a war he had thought \u201cmight not go beyond three days\u201d.<\/p>\n

Over several hours, calls went back and forth \u2013 primarily involving Munir and Malik, with Trump, his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the vice-president, JD Vance, and the US special envoy Steve Witkoff on one side, and senior Iranian ministers including Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on the other. Sharif also made calls to the Iranian side and to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.<\/p>\n

Until Tuesday evening, Iran remained \u201creluctant\u201d to commit to any ceasefire, according to accounts, having little trust that the Trump administration<\/a> was not simply using talks as a guise for the US and Israel to regroup and then strike again.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif \u2013 pictured, right, with Donald Trump last year \u2013 had earlier in the week told his cabinet the situation looked bleak. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein\/Reuters<\/p>\n

But this time, said officials, there was a new key player involved, one who wielded crucial influence with the Iranians: China, previously \u201creluctant\u201d to get too entwined in a messy war that was visibly weakening Trump, was quietly taking a different tact as the toll of the war on its own economy grew.<\/p>\n

Just over a week earlier, Pakistan\u2019s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, had flown to Beijing to discuss ways to secure peace in the Middle East and to ask for a bigger commitment from China to help end the conflict.<\/p>\n

In a marked shift, Pakistani officials claimed China had been persuaded by \u201cfriendly countries\u201d to make a pivotal leap into Tuesday\u2019s negotiations. \u201cPakistan had to involve China to convince Iran to go for a ceasefire,\u201d said one official.<\/p>\n

By 8pm, Sharif held a much more optimistic meeting with his cabinet. \u201cA ray of hope has emerged for negotiations and a ceasefire,\u201d he said, adding that Munir was leading a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

According to accounts, China directly encouraged Iran to accept a ceasefire, promising to act as a guarantor of Iran\u2019s safety in any talks. Among the assurances offered by China was that Iranian leaders would not be assassinated if they travelled for negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the mediator, not the guarantor,\u201d said one Pakistani official. \u201cThe main role was played by China. They became a guarantor of the ceasefire and pledged that the US would standby the agreement and that talks would go smoothly in Islamabad. They told Iran to accept this deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistani officials claimed the US was aware and comfortable with China\u2019s intervention. Trump appeared to later confirm this account in an interview, where he said he believed China had persuaded Iran to negotiate.<\/p>\n

By 4am in Islamabad, the seemingly impossible had been secured. A \u2013 temporary, fragile \u2013 ceasefire deal was agreed by both the US and Iran. Michael Kugelman, south Asia fellow at the Atlantic council, described it as Pakistan\u2019s \u201cbiggest diplomatic win in years\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Sharif hailed the ceasefire as a \u201cshining moment\u201d in Pakistan\u2019s history and a \u201cfirst step\u201d towards peace. He pledged that peace talks involving both the US and Iran would go ahead in Islamabad on Friday, with apparent preparations in place for them to be held at the city\u2019s Serena hotel. An Iranian source confirmed that Tehran intended to send Ghalibaf and Araghchi as its negotiators.<\/p>\n

Pakistani officials have privately expressed fears that Israel and the United Arab Emirates could still try to \u201csabotage\u201d the peace process, especially as Israel has said Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire deal<\/a> and trade through the strait of Hormuz remains largely blocked.<\/p>\n

Kugelman said Pakistan had \u201cdefied many skeptics and naysayers that didn\u2019t think it had the capacity to pull off such a complex, high-stakes feat\u201d, adding: \u201cWhat matters the most is it helped avert a potential catastrophe in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan\u2019s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-382081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}