Pakistan’s rapid turn from pariah to linchpin in Iran peace talks

Pakistan has emerged as a key player in the U.S.-Iran peace talks, marking a remarkable turn of fortunes for its top general, who during President Trump’s second term has transformed from a global pariah to a diplomatic heavyweight. 

Trump on Tuesday announced an extension of the ceasefire with Iran, saying it would be in place until Tehran provides a unified proposal. 

In the statement, the president said it came following a direct appeal from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s powerful military leader, Asim Munir, who have mediated the negotiations. 

Munir, the nation’s army chief, has taken an unorthodox approach to forging a deal between Washington and Tehran, building ties with Trump while engaging with Iran’s political leadership and its Revolutionary Guards Corps. 

“He doesn’t blink in the face of pressure. He is Islamic without being ideological, which is very important, because previously we had Islamists who were ideological,” Mushahid Hussain, a Pakistani senator representing Islamabad, told The Hill on Wednesday. 

A turning point in relations with Trump came around the India-Pakistan conflict in 2025, when Pakistan nominated the U.S. president for the Nobel Peace Prize, said Alexander Palmer, a fellow in the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“He’s been very vocal about desiring it. And I think that Pakistan’s eager participation in President Trump’s various initiatives like the Board of Peace would certainly play a role and make him see Pakistan as a kind of reliable partner, in a way that he has not always seen America’s more traditional allies.”

Hussain, who served as Pakistan’s minister of information, said Trump is very much impressed by the military uniforms and the brass, “especially Field Marshal Asim Munir and Pakistanis are generally affable, relaxed, backslapping kind of folks.”

“Trump loves winners, and he’s impressed,” Hussain added. “He said, ‘Who are these Pakistanis? It’s a small country, and they’ve clobbered the Indians, this puny little country, which has got the atom bomb also, beat the hell out of the Indians in this encounter. So who are these folks?’” 

The turnaround in U.S. sentiment has been swift. Under the Biden administration, U.S. relations with the South Asian country were........

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