There are hours in history when a country’s importance is not measured by the noise it makes, but by the danger it helps avert. In the latest round of US-Iran tensions, Pakistan found itself in precisely such an hour. At that moment, Pakistan did not posture. It performed.

This was not diplomacy for applause. It was diplomacy with purpose. Islamabad understood what was at stake because Pakistan has lived too close to conflict for too long to treat escalation as an abstraction. A war involving Iran and the United States would not have remained confined to military briefings or distant capitals. It would have shaken energy markets, unsettled the Gulf, inflamed regional sentiment, threatened trade routes and placed additional pressure on Pakistan’s own security environment. To work for de-escalation was, therefore, not merely a diplomatic option. It was a national responsibility.

Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir’s role in this process has placed Pakistan where it belongs: at the centre of consequential regional diplomacy. At a time when many actors were trapped by their alliances, rivalries or public positions, Pakistan retained the one asset that matters most in a crisis: credibility with competing sides. Washington could speak to Islamabad. Tehran could speak to Islamabad. Gulf capitals could read Pakistan’s moves with seriousness. Beijing, Ankara and Riyadh could see that Pakistan was not acting as a reckless partisan, but as a disciplined stabilising power.

Even Western........

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