Why Pakistan has emerged as a mediator between US and Iran

ISLAMABAD (AP) — As fears of a wider regional conflict escalate following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that began in late February, Pakistan has emerged as an unexpected mediator, offering to help bring Washington and Tehran to the negotiating table.

Islamabad isn't often called on to act as an intermediary in high-stakes diplomacy, but it's stepped into the role this time for a number of reasons, both because it has relatively good ties with both Washington and Tehran and because it has a lot at stake in seeing the war resolved.

Pakistani government officials have said that their public peace effort follows weeks of quiet diplomacy, though they have provided few details. They have also said that Islamabad stands ready to host talks between representatives from the U.S. and Iran.

Here's what to know about Pakistan's mediation effort:

Pakistan’s role in Iran-U.S. negotiations surfaced only days ago following media reports. Officials in Islamabad later acknowledged that a U.S. proposal had been conveyed to Iran.

It remains unclear who has served as Iran’s point of contact in the indirect talks. Iran has maintained it has not held such talks and dismissed the U.S. proposal, but Tehran has acknowledged responding with its own proposals.

According to Pakistani officials, U.S. messages are being passed to Iran and Iranian responses relayed to Washington, though they did not specify how the process is being handled or who is directly communicating with whom. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said this week that Turkey and Egypt are also working behind the scenes to bring the sides to the negotiating table.

Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, said that Pakistani’s mediation efforts may be contributing to relative restraint in the conflict. He noted that U.S. President Donald Trump has delayed his threats of large-scale attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure citing diplomatic progress, and Iranian responses toward U.S. interests in the Gulf have been measured in what may be an effort to preserve space for diplomacy.

Previous US-Iran negotiations have been facilitated mainly by countries in the Middle East, including Oman and Qatar, but as they come under Iranian fire during the war Pakistan has stepped into the role.

Analysts say Pakistan’s geographic proximity to Iran — it’s one of its neighbors — coupled with its longstanding ties with the U.S., gives it a unique position at a time when direct communication between the two sides remains constrained.

Islamabad has good working relations with most of the key parties in the war, including both the U.S. and Iran. It has close strategic ties with Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, with which it signed a defense cooperation agreement last year. However, Pakistan has no diplomatic relations with Israel because of the lingering issue of Palestinian statehood.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have improved since last year, with increased diplomatic engagement and expanding economic ties. Pakistan also joined Trump's Board of Peace, which aims to ensure peace in Gaza, despite opposition from Islamists at home.

Over the weekend, Trump spoke to the Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, whom the U.S. president has publicly described as his “favorite Field Marshal.” Analysts say he's a player who enjoys good ties with both the Iranian and U.S. militaries.

The conflict poses some of “the biggest economic and energy security challenges” in Pakistan’s history, said Islamabad-based security analyst Syed Mohammad Ali.

The country gets most of its oil and gas from the Middle East — and, he said, the five million Pakistanis working in the Arab world send home remittances each year roughly equal to the country’s total export earnings.

Rising tensions have already contributed to higher global oil prices, forcing Pakistan to increase fuel prices by about 20% and putting pressure on the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The war is also adding to domestic turmoil, even as Pakistan has been grappling for months with its own conflict with neighboring Afghanistan. Islamabad has accused the country's Taliban government of tolerating militant groups that are behind attacks in Pakistan.

Earlier this month, protests erupted across the country following U.S. strikes on Iran, with demonstrators clashing with security forces in several cities.

A day after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, clashes erupted in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi and in parts of the north, leaving at least 22 people dead and more than 120 injured nationwide.

At least 12 people were killed in and around the U.S. Consulate in Karachi after a mob breached the compound and attempted to set it on fire.

Khamenei was a central religious and political figure for Shiites worldwide, including in Pakistan.

While Pakistan rarely serves as a mediator, its record does include playing a role in some very high-profile talks.

Pakistan’s then-President Gen. Yahya Khan facilitated backchannel contacts that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 visit to China. That paved the way for the establishment of diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing in 1979.

Since then, Pakistan has played a role in several other complex regional conflicts, most notably during the 1988 Geneva Accords that paved the way for the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Acting as a frontline state and key interlocutor, Islamabad participated in U.N.-brokered negotiations while working closely with the United States and other stakeholders and helped increase pressure on Moscow to pull out its forces.

More recently, Pakistan facilitated contacts between the Afghan Taliban and Washington that led to talks in Doha that culminated in a 2020 agreement and set the stage for the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO troops and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

Castillo reported from Beijing.

FILE - In this photo released by the Inter Services Public Relations, newly elevated Field Marshal General Asim Munir prays after laying wreath on the Martyrs monument during a special guard of honor ceremony at General Headquarters, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, May 21, 2025. (Inter Services Public Relations via AP, File)

FILE - Paramilitary soldiers take positions at the U.S. Consulate after protesters stormed the building in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza, File)

FILE - In this photo released by Pakistan Prime Minister Office, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, left, and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi meet during an inauguration of the Mand-Pishin border in Pishin, border of Pakistan-Iran, on May 18, 2023. (Pakistan Prime Minister Office via AP, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump, left, listens as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal, on Oct. 13, 2025, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

VAUX-DE-CERNAY, France (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in France meeting his Group of Seven foreign minister counterparts on Friday, after President Donald Trump attacked NATO countries over a reluctance or refusal to take part in the Iran war, a conflict that some of America’s closest allies have met with deep skepticism.

Rubio will have a hard time trying to sell the other top diplomats from G7 countries on the U.S. strategy for the Iran conflict, to which almost all nations have raised objections. On his arrival at the meeting venue at a historic 12-century abbey in Vaux-de-Cernay outside of Paris, Rubio posed for a group photo with his fellow foreign ministers but none of them spoke.

Trump’s vitriolic comments about NATO during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday will likely make it an even tougher task. Of the G7 nations — besides the U.S. — Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy are members of the trans-Atlantic military alliance. Japan is the only one that is not.

Rubio left Washington for the G7 meeting just hours after Trump complained bitterly about NATO countries not stepping up to help the U.S. and Israel in the Iran war.

“We are very disappointed with NATO because NATO has done absolutely nothing,” Trump said.

Rubio has work to do to smooth things over with allies like those in Europe that have faced criticism or outright threats from Trump and others in his administration. The Europeans are still smarting over Trump's earlier demands to take over Greenland from NATO ally Denmark and are concerned about U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. The conflict in the Middle East has added another point of tension.

“Frankly, I think countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit, should actually be grateful that the United States has a president that’s willing to confront a threat like this,” Rubio said at the Cabinet meeting.

Asked by reporters about the reception he was expecting to get, Rubio said before his flight to France that he was looking forward to gathering with his G7 counterparts and that “we’re going to have great meetings.”

“I’m not there to make them happy,” he said. “I get along with all of them on a personal level, and we work with those governments very carefully, but the people I’m interested in making happy are the people of the United States. That’s who I work for. I don’t work for France or Germany or Japan.”

“What we need is a partnership, including the diplomacy, including some of the discussions that we will have today because frankly, Iran cannot be able to just hold the global economy hostage,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Friday as she headed into the meeting.

Trump has complained that he has not been able to rally support behind his war of choice in Iran and that NATO and most other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran's chokehold has disrupted oil shipments and pushed up energy prices.

“We’re there to protect NATO, to protect them from Russia. But they’re not there to protect us,” Trump said Thursday. He later added: “I never thought we needed them. I was more doing a test.”

Before the U.S. leader's comments, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte reiterated the increase in defense spending by alliance members — which Trump has urged — saying Europe and Canada had been “overreliant on U.S. military might” but a “shift in mindset” has taken hold.

Rutte said NATO has been clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has “long recognized the threat Iran’s missile program posed to allies and their interests. And what the United States is currently doing is degrading those capabilities, both the nuclear and the missile.”

France is hosting the G7 meeting near Versailles and has been highly skeptical of the war. The chief of the French defense staff, Gen. Fabien Mandon, complained this week that U.S. allies had not been informed about the start of hostilities.

“They have just decided to intervene in the Near and Middle East without notifying us,” Mandon said. “We acted immediately, surprised by an American ally, who remains an ally, but who is less and less predictable and doesn’t even bother to inform us when it decides to engage in military operations. This affects our security. This affects our interests.”

However, 35 countries joined military talks hosted by Mandon on how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “once the intensity of hostilities has sufficiently decreased,” France’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Rubio said that with Iran threatening global shipping, countries that care about international law “should step up and deal with it.”

Similar sentiments to Mandon's have been expressed by other allies that also worry about the U.S. commitment to Ukraine as the Iran war closes in on four weeks.

“We must avoid further destabilization, secure our economic freedom and develop perspectives for an end of and the time after the hostilities,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday. “Our joint support for Ukraine ... must not crumble now. That would be a strategic mistake with a view to Euro-Atlantic security.”

Wadephul said he expected “that we can define a joint position” on the Middle East.

“Of course, this is about ending this conflict as quickly as possible, but also ending it sustainably, and that means bringing about security in the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring overall that the Iranian regime, which in the past has behaved negatively enough, is also curtailed in the future,” Wadephul said.

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, John Leicester in Paris and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio talk during the G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting with partner countries in Cernay-la-Ville outside Paris, France, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

From left: Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand, France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pose for a photo during the G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting with partner countries in Cernay-la-Ville outside Paris, France, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, right, greets U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he arrives at the G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting with partner countries in Cernay-la-Ville outside Paris, France, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

From bottom centre to left: EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi attend talks during a G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting with Partner Countries in Cernay-la-Ville outside Paris, Friday, March 27, 2026. (Stephanie Lecocq/Pool Photo via AP)

From left: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot and Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand attend a working session on the second day of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Cernay-la-Ville near Paris, March 27, 2026. (Stephanie Lecocq/Pool Photo via AP)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters before boarding a plane at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters before boarding a plane at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, in Le Bourget, France, early Friday, March 27, 2026, to take part in the G7 foreign ministers' meeting. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Washington. From left are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, in Le Bourget, France, early Friday, March 27, 2026, to take part in the G7 foreign ministers' meeting. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP)