After the Israeli attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear plants and the expected Iranian response, the world is teetering on the edge of a deadly precipice. The US and Israel alone are to be blamed for this moment. A desperately needed pause to this madness must come.

Meanwhile, at a moment when much of the world has either chosen sides, calculated silence, or retreated into carefully managed ambiguity, Pakistan has attempted something far more demanding: to oppose war, stand by legality, maintain visible political support for the state under attack, and yet preserve diplomatic channels with every major actor capable of influencing the outcome.

Since the outbreak of Israeli-US military action against Iran, Islamabad has pursued a course that is neither rhetorical posturing nor passive neutrality. It has instead sought, from the first day, to push the crisis towards a just, legal and non-kinetic process while remaining engaged with all sides in what is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous confrontations the region has faced in years.

This has not been easy diplomacy. Pakistan is operating in a strategic environment where military narratives inevitably move faster than political reason. It is also a space in which every diplomatic move is immediately measured against competing regional loyalties and global alignments.

Yet Islamabad chose early to anchor its position in national interests and a principle that has long been the hallmark of its formal diplomatic language: precedents that violate sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be set casually without weakening the larger, however imperfect, international order.

That is why Pakistan’s statements consistently invoked the language of the UN Charter, particularly the prohibition on the use of force against territorial integrity except under clearly established legal grounds. This gave Pakistan’s position clarity at a time when many states preferred caution or a delayed response. It also gave Islamabad credibility with Tehran without shutting the door to wider diplomatic engagement.

That credibility matters because Pakistan did not merely issue one statement and retreat. It remained diplomatically active, politically visible, and strategically consistent. In multilateral forums, bilateral contacts and regional consultations, Pakistan continued arguing that if force becomes the preferred instrument before legal and political avenues are exhausted, then the international system itself suffers another serious erosion.

Even those........

© The Friday Times