ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan moved sharply closer to the centre of Middle East diplomacy on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said he would suspend bombing and attacks on Iran for two weeks following conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir. In the same statement, Trump said the pause would depend on Iran agreeing to the “complete, immediate, and safe” opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The significance of the announcement lies not only in the temporary halt itself, but in the fact that Trump directly linked it to Pakistani intervention. According to Reuters, Trump said Pakistani leaders had asked him to hold off on sending destructive force to Iran, and he framed the move as part of a “double sided ceasefire” tied to maritime reopening and fast-moving diplomacy.
That marks a major public validation of Islamabad’s mediation effort. Earlier in the day, Shehbaz Sharif had urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks, asked Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for the same period as a goodwill gesture, and called on all sides to observe a two-week ceasefire to let diplomacy work. Reuters reported that Pakistan has been pushing exactly that framework as it tries to prevent the war from widening further.
Trump also said the United States had received a 10-point proposal from Iran and believed it offered a workable basis for negotiation, adding that many of the main points of contention had already been narrowed. Reuters and Axios both reported that Washington now sees a two-week window as enough time to try to convert military pause into a more durable agreement.
For Pakistan, the moment is diplomatically significant. What had until now been described as active Pakistani mediation has now been acknowledged by Trump in explicit terms, with both Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir named as figures who helped shape a pause at a critical hour. Reuters has separately reported that Pakistan assembled a broader framework for ending hostilities and reopening Hormuz, underscoring how deeply Islamabad has inserted itself into the process.
