The high-stakes diplomacy that led to Pakistan hosting US-Iran peace talks
As Pakistan celebrates its success in helping negotiate a two-week ceasefire between the
US and Iran, its leaders are preparing to host the peace talks.
A two-day holiday was declared in the country's capital of Islamabad ahead of the talks, which are due to begin on Saturday. Whether or not they will actually go ahead has yet to be confirmed, but the city has readied itself all the same. The streets have become quieter as about 10,000 police officers and security forces are deployed.
The stakes for the world are high – countries across the globe are keen to see an end to the fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery where about 20% of the global oil supply flowed through before the war.
But they are also high for Pakistan in other ways.
The South Asian nation will face a potential "nightmare scenario" if negotiations collapse, and it gets dragged into fighting with its neighbour Iran, says Abdul Basit, a South Asia expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This could happen as Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia last year - and Islamabad has since "made it clear that it will honour its commitment given to the Saudis", says Basit.
This could result in "three borders of Pakistan [becoming] hot", Basit explains, referring to Pakistan's existing tensions with its other neighbours Afghanistan and India. "And Pakistan is fighting two full-fledged insurgencies in two of the four provinces. Pakistan cannot afford that.
Yet pride and excitement is taking over Pakistani social media, with different memes going viral. "It is a victory in the sense that no other country in the world was able to broker the ceasefire and we were on the verge of a possible catastrophe. Pakistan averted that," says Basit.
The success is very much needed for a country that has endured years of political unrest, a fragile economy on the brink of a debt default only two years ago, and intense rivalry with India. So how did Pakistan pull off this feat?
Pakistan is in a unique position as it is trusted by the US, Iran and the Gulf countries.
The reconciliation process is led by Pakistan's military chief Asim Munir, whom US President Donald Trump calls his "favourite field marshal", according to Mushahid Hussain Syed, a senator belonging to the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League.
Munir is arguably the most powerful man in Pakistan, a country where the army has long played a predominant role in politics.
