Seven foreign leaders phoned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif within 24 hours, publicly praising Pakistan’s role in securing the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and signalling a rare burst of direct diplomatic recognition for Islamabad.
Senior Indian Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said India should welcome, not resent, Pakistan’s role in helping secure a US–Iran ceasefire, arguing that peace in the region is not a zero-sum outcome.
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by U.S.-based advocacy group Sikhs for Justice, crediting him with containing escalation during the recent U.S.-Iran crisis.
India’s Congress has welcomed the West Asia ceasefire but says BJP blunders weakened New Delhi and opened diplomatic space for Pakistan to emerge as a mediator. The statement is a rare public sign that Pakistan’s regional role is now being debated inside India itself.
Trump says he will pause strikes on Iran for two weeks after talks with Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir, placing Pakistan at the heart of a high-stakes diplomatic push over the Strait of Hormuz and a possible wider peace deal.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged Donald Trump to extend the deadline by two weeks, called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and backed a temporary ceasefire to give diplomacy a real chance in the Middle East.
President Trump has said that Iranian civilisation “will die tonight” if Iran did not agree to the terms of a peace deal brokered by Pakistan before his deadline expired.
An Iranian strike tied to the Jubail petrochemical complex has sharpened fears of a wider regional rupture, deepened pressure on Saudi Arabia to respond, and cast fresh doubt over a fragile diplomatic track in which Pakistan has emerged as a key intermediary.
Army Chief of Staff General Randy George has stepped down after being asked to take early retirement, extending a wider Pentagon leadership shake-up.
Just before Donald Trump was due to address the nation on the Middle East conflict, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian published an open letter to Americans, arguing that Tehran is being falsely cast as a threat and warning that more attacks will bring only suffering, instability and lasting resentment.
