Sky News attempts to shed light on Pakistan’s role as a mediator between the US and Iran, answering the question of why this South Asian country is now playing such an important role.

Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, appears to be acting as a mediator between Iran’s Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and US envoys, as well as Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign minister has held more than 30 talks with counterparts across the Middle East.

Who is Pakistan’s powerful mediator

Pakistan’s armed forces hold a position of power within the country. Even by those standards, Munir has amassed rare authority since taking office as army chief in 2022, thanks to a constitutional amendment that placed him in a unified command position.

According to Sky News, Munir has built a close relationship with Trump regarding Pakistan’s conflict with India, which the US president claimed had ended, even referring to him as his “favorite field marshal.”

Pakistan also joined Trump’s “Peace Council” shortly after Munir’s visit to Davos to meet him in January. It also signed an agreement with a cryptocurrency company linked to Trump’s family to use the company’s USD1 stablecoin for cross-border payments.

Why Pakistan is pushing for peace

Pakistan maintains direct contact with both Washington and Tehran, having been described as Iran’s least hostile neighbor, while also enjoying the trust of the United States—making it a credible mediator.

Pakistan’s embassy in Washington hosts, among other things, Tehran’s de facto diplomatic mission since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is also home to the world’s second-largest Shia population after Iran.

However, the Sky News analysis concludes that Pakistan has its own reasons for pushing for an end to the war: it is facing fuel supply disruptions amid its conflict with the Afghan Taliban.