• Insiders say Washington asked Pakistan to host negotiations; groundwork laid in weeks of ‘hectic diplomacy’
• Witkoff expected to lead engagement; no indication yet of who Iran may send
• Trump claims engagement on ‘15 points’
• Tehran implies existence of backchannel; spox says messages from US ‘received and responded to’
• Qatar, Turkiye support swift efforts to end war
• German president calls US-Israeli war on Iran ‘violation of international law’
ISLAMABAD: A day after a proposal was floated to hold Iran-US talks in the nation’s capital, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally pitched Islamabad as a potential venue for negotiations between Iranian and US officials.
“Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” he wrote on X, tagging US President Donald Trump, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The move followed reports that Pakistan, Turkiye and Egypt had talked the US out of attacking Iranian energy infrastructure — a move that many fear would mark a dangerous escalation in the already-deadly conflict raging in West Asia.
While there was no official word on whether the offer was Pakistan’s own initiative, sources privy to discussions said that the request that Islamabad host talks between the two warring sides had actually come from Washington.
“Didn’t you see that who re-tweeted the PM’s message,” a source privy to developments told Dawn when asked where the proposal originated from.
This was a reference to President Donald Trump, who shared PM Shehbaz’s tweet on his own Truth Social platform.
Pakistan has not made the offer ‘just for fun’, the insider said, adding that there was a deeper significance behind the move.
When asked why Pakistan was chosen, the source said that the offer did not come about in a day or two, but was deliberated on in a series of meetings and backchannel efforts aimed at de-escalating the situation in the Middle East.
“Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was in constant contact with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi and talked to him at least five times in recent days,” the source said.
Similarly, PM Shehbaz has spoken to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian twice in a couple of days, and their last conversation on Monday was said to have lasted over an hour.
Meanwhile, the top military brass engaged Washington, the source said, referring to reports that Field Marshal Asim Munir had spoken to President Trump.
In addition, civil and military leaders also met Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and his Defence Minister Faisal bin Farhan during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia, the insider said, painting all of these individual occurrences as being part of the chain of events that led up to the offer of Islamabad as a potential venue for de-escalation measures.
Another aide to the PM cited media reports, which claimed that Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff had traveled to Pakistan. “There is, however, so far no sign of any meaningful Iranian figure joining him there,” the aide told Dawn.
One source scoffed at the general feeling of ‘surprise’ over Pakistan playing a central role in organising talks between the warring sides, saying that it reflected how the country’s diplomatic potential was always underestimated.
