To the utter dismay of all and sundry, Islamabad Talks 1.0 remained largely inconclusive. They had provided the US and its mercurial president an excellent off-ramp that could have untangled the festering geopolitical conundrum in the Middle East–Greater Middle East Region (ME-GMER) complex. However, that opportunity went abegging. The chasm between the national interests and positions of the antagonists proved unbridgeable in one night. Pakistan manoeuvred brilliantly to bring the US and Iran, two long-time foes, to sit across a table and talk directly, perhaps for the first time in close to half a century. It mounted a whole-of-the-nation and whole-of-the-government effort to make this happen. It displayed sublime civil-military diplomacy to get both sides to overcome their inhibitions and give regional and global peace a real chance. However, the strategic stalemate that followed was not what the world had hoped for. Pakistan continues its efforts to restart this process with unrelenting drive, purpose and ambition.

There were........

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