The Islamabad Talks: Pakistan mediates between Washington and Tehran

Background

Pakistan shares a long border with Iran and has a large Shia minority. When the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February 2026, killing the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks on Iran - and Iran's retaliatory strikes on Gulf states - and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called for immediate diplomacy^1,2.

On 1 March thousands of protesters tried to storm the US consulate in Karachi; police and security forces opened fire and reports put the number killed in Pakistan that day at between about ten and more than twenty³. It was the most serious attack on a US diplomatic post in Pakistan in many years.

Mediation

Despite its condemnation of the strikes, Pakistan positioned itself as a channel between the two sides, drawing on Field Marshal Asim Munir's direct relationship with President Trump and its ties with Tehran. With China, it put forward a five-point proposal on 31 March calling for a ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and it shared a phased truce plan with both sides⁴. A two-week US–Iran ceasefire was agreed on 8 April⁴.

Pakistan then hosted the "Islamabad Talks". Vice President JD Vance, with the envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met an Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi - the first direct high-level US–Iran negotiations since the 1979 revolution⁵. The talks, which ran for about 21 hours on 11–12 April, ended without agreement, with each side blaming the other's demands; Vance praised Sharif and Munir as hosts and said Pakistan had done an amazing job⁶.

Mediation continued, led by Pakistan and Qatar, including visits by Munir to Tehran in May⁸. In June, after a renewed exchange of strikes, Washington and Tehran agreed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift the US blockade on Iranian oil exports, with a deadline to negotiate a wider nuclear agreement⁷.

Why it mattered

The episode transformed Pakistan's standing in Washington: for the first time in decades it acted as an intermediary trusted by the United States on a major crisis outside South Asia. It also showed Pakistan's balancing act - condemning US military action, managing violent domestic anger against the United States, and keeping close ties with both Washington and Tehran.

Legacy

As of October 2026 the follow-on nuclear negotiations remained unresolved, and Pakistan continued to describe itself as a mediator.