AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It's been more than a week since renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran began. And again, all eyes are on Pakistan to broker a breakthrough once more. High-level diplomatic talks are underway in Islamabad today, as key Pakistani mediators try to save a crumbling interim agreement. As NPR's Diaa Hadid reports from Islamabad, this is a remarkable turn of fortune for Pakistan's army chief and for his country.
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DIAA HADID, BYLINE: A brass band plays for Iran's president. He was visiting in June, a gesture of thanks after Pakistan mediated a memorandum of understanding that set off negotiations on a peace deal, even amid flaring clashes. Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif says his country has a new role - peacemaker.
KHAWAJA ASIF: We have attained a very praiseworthy role, which is a clean break from a...
HADID: A clean break from when, in his view, Pakistan was unfairly labeled a...
ASIF: ...Country which was identified with terrorism.
HADID: Arifa Noor is a columnist with Pakistani newspaper Dawn. In a cafe, she says this was unexpected.
ARIFA NOOR: Pieces of the puzzle kept falling into place in a way that perhaps nobody could have predicted.
HADID: In fact, when Trump was reelected, Pakistan's military government worried they'd pay a price for jailing the former prime minister Imran Khan in 2023. Khan had good relations with Trump in his first administration, and Trump confidant Richard Grenell demanded his release in now-deleted tweets.
ABDULLAH KHAN: Everybody was worried, actually.
HADID: Abdullah Khan heads the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. He says the military-backed government worked to get into Trump's good books, including by extraditing a man accused of involvement in the 2021 Kabul attack that killed more than a dozen service members during America's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Khan says that effort paid off. Trump thanked Pakistan in his first joint session of Congress in March last year.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I want to thank, especially, the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster.
HADID: A few weeks later, events took another turn.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: India struck multiple targets across Pakistan in the most extensive strikes in more than 50 years.
HADID: Pakistan caught Trump's attention as it fought back and claimed to have downed Indian fighter jets. After that dayslong war, President Trump hosted Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in the White House. Afterwards, he began calling him my favorite general. And Pakistan flattered a man who enjoys flattery.
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PRIME MINISTER SHEHBAZ SHARIF: Mr. President, I would like to salute you.
HADID: That's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. In audio from the Associated Press last October, he announces...
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SHARIF: I would like to nominate this great president for Nobel Peace Prize.
HADID: So by the time the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran in late February, columnist Noor says Pakistan was uniquely placed to play peacemaker.
NOOR: There was nobody else who could've played this role.
HADID: She says the army chief field marshal, Asim Munir, worked to contain the war. To stop it from spreading, he tapped his newfound contacts at the White House alongside the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif. And Iran too was short on friends, and Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, was dispatched to Tehran. It helped that he was from Pakistan's large Shia minority.
Shortly after the war began, Pakistan arranged a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that has curbed the worst clashes. That was followed by April talks in Islamabad. They quickly collapsed, but Pakistani mediators kept trying. Then in mid-June...
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TRUMP: We just made a great settlement of the war with the Iran.
HADID: Now Khan, the security analyst, says Pakistan's emerged as a regional force and appears to be exploring defense agreements with smaller Gulf countries.
KHAN: They're looking towards Pakistan because Americans failed to protect them during this war.
HADID: But Noor, the columnist, says while Pakistan looks outwardly strong...
NOOR: There is no stability.
HADID: She says Munir's military-backed government has been quelling flaring protests with violence. In June, in clashes between protesters and police, 20 people were killed.
NOOR: If the state is using violence, then it means its authority and legitimacy is already under question.
HADID: And she says that instability may erode Pakistan's gains.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Islamabad. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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