ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir is a reliable partner for all sides in the Iran-US conflict, a security analyst has said, as CDF Munir concludes a day-long visit to Tehran as part of Pakistan's diplomatic efforts to end the stalemate and promote a negotiated settlement.
Speaking on Pakistan TV Digital's South Speaks with Saqib, National Defence University academic Marium Fatima said Pakistan remains the only mediator both Washington and Tehran trust, even with the Islamabad Memorandum set aside.
“CDF is a reliable partner for the US, for Saudi Arabia and for Qatar, and also for Iran,” Fatima said.
CDF Munir arrived in Tehran on Monday alongside Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi as part of Pakistan's efforts to promote regional peace and stability.
He met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Supreme National Security Council representative Mohsen Rezaei and Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni during his visit, according to Pakistan military's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Discussions focused on preventing further escalation, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and expediting an end to the conflict.
The visit comes as Pakistan continues efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table following the US-Israel war on Iran. Pakistan has said it is making “all out efforts” to bring the two parties to negotiations.
The diplomatic effort has included the Islamabad Memorandum and subsequent talks in Islamabad and Switzerland's Bürgenstock. Islamabad has maintained that the memorandum provides a framework for further dialogue.
Fatima said Pakistan's position rests partly on its leadership.
“A country is always dependent on the personality of a leader, and the current leadership is very well positioned to have open access channels with all the parties,” she said.
Fatima said Pakistan's neutrality sets it apart from rival mediators.
“Pakistan doesn't have any personal stakes involved in this conflict. If you look at Oman and Qatar, they have their stakes involved,” she said, noting Qatar hosts US air bases.
She dismissed efforts to question Pakistan's credibility.
“Countries such as Israel or India, or any other country with malintentions, are trying to vilify Pakistan as not a credible, trusted mediator," she said. "That doesn't hold ground.”
On the memorandum, Fatima said the parties set it aside after the recent escalation, but called its contents substantial.
“It was an agreement to enter into an agreement after talks,” she said, citing Iran's nuclear program, the unfreezing of Iranian assets and the Strait of Hormuz.
She said the Strait of Hormuz is now Iran's main source of leverage.
“Iran has felt that its sovereignty has been violated,” she said, pointing to sanctions and attacks during earlier negotiations.
Fatima doubted new US sanctions would work.
“If Iran could not be made to come back to the table by attacking Iran, its infrastructure, its civilian population, and also decapitating its leadership,” she said, sanctions were unlikely to succeed either.
She said Iran's resistance showed the arrival of a multipolar world where middle powers carry real weight.
“Pakistan is not just a middle power for me. It is one of the poles. Pakistan is the pole for the Muslim world,” she said.
Fatima said Pakistan had kept Middle Eastern states out of a wider war with Iran, and preferred to call that a humanitarian crisis averted rather than a world war prevented.