ISLAMABAD: Responding to US President Donald Trump’s praise for Pakistan’s mediation efforts, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has thanked him for his “kind and gracious words.”
In a post on X, Sharif wrote: “Mr President, on behalf of the people of Pakistan, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, and on my behalf, I express my deep and profound appreciation for your kind and gracious words.”
The exchange capped a major diplomatic breakthrough engineered by Pakistan’s civilian-military leadership.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, successfully brought arch-rivals Iran and the United States to the negotiation table.
Their intense backchannel diplomacy produced an Iran-US ceasefire, the immediate reopening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and a separate Israel-Lebanon truce.
Analysts say Pakistan’s unified approach de-escalated a potential Gulf war and restored global oil shipping lanes. With this triple success, Islamabad has cemented its role as a key mediator in the Middle East.
Pakistan is trying to host another round of Iran-US talks in Islamabad, for which dates are being decided mutually.
The White House has indicated that a second round of US-Iran talks is “very likely” to take place in Islamabad, underscoring Pakistan’s growing role as a central diplomatic channel between Washington and Tehran.
