13JUN

Pakistan pledges to continue mediating alone

1 min read

10:52UTC

Deputy PM Ishaq Dar confirmed Pakistan will continue its mediator role despite the Islamabad breakdown.

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ConflictDeveloping

Key takeaway

Pakistan holds the mediator role alone, with 10 days to produce a follow-up session.

Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed on 12 April that Islamabad will continue mediating between the US and Iran despite the talks producing no agreement. Dar stated: "Islamabad has been and will continue" as mediator. Iran's Foreign Ministry signalled willingness to continue but proposed no date.

Pakistan hosted the talks by invoking the precedent of the 1988 Geneva Accords, when it hosted proximity negotiations between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. Pakistani officials logged more than 25 high-level contacts in the days preceding the talks to arrange the format. Sessions shifted from proximity to direct, with Pakistani officials mediating in the room.

Vance's departure leaves Pakistan as the only state with an active claim to the mediator role. Oman, which facilitated earlier indirect channels, has not publicly offered to host a next round. Egypt relayed a truce offer in early April but has not been part of the Islamabad format. Pakistan now has roughly 10 days to produce a follow-up session before the ceasefire expires around 22 April.

Pakistan's neutrality took damage during the talks themselves. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif posted anti-Israel content on social media during the opening session , an unforced error that compromised the host country's image of impartiality. Whether that incident weakens Islamabad's standing as a future venue remains to be seen.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Pakistan offered to host the talks and serve as a go-between because it has diplomatic relations with both the US and Iran, and because it wanted to establish itself as a regional power broker. After the talks failed to produce a deal, Pakistan's Deputy PM Ishaq Dar said his country would keep trying. The problem is that Pakistan's value as a mediator depends on being trusted by both sides. During the talks, Pakistan's Defence Minister posted on social media calling Israel 'a cancerous state'. Israel immediately said Pakistan could not be a neutral mediator. That controversy has not been resolved. Pakistan needs another round of talks to happen in Islamabad to prove the first round was not a one-off. If no second round is scheduled before the ceasefire expires, Pakistan's diplomatic investment is wasted.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Pakistan's mediating credibility is contingent on producing a second round before the ceasefire expires; without a scheduled session, Islamabad's role as a diplomatic channel becomes a historical footnote rather than an active mechanism.
Risk
The Pakistan Defence Minister's social media post calling Israel 'a cancerous state' remains unresolved; Netanyahu's office specifically stated Pakistan cannot be a neutral arbiter, which limits Islamabad's ability to serve as a venue if the US-Israel relationship constrains the format.

Sources:NPR

Mentions:Iran →Afghanistan →Islamabad →Oman →Geneva →Egypt →1988 Geneva Accords →Israel →Khawaja Asif →Ishaq Dar →Pakistan →

First Reported In

Update #66 · Islamabad collapses: 10 days to expiry

NPR· 12 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

This Event

Pakistan pledges to continue mediating alone

Pakistan is now the only active mediator with a stated commitment to continue, but its credibility depends on producing a follow-up session before the ceasefire expires.

Led to

Munir in Tehran; Vance's walkout explained

Pakistan's confirmed continuation of mediation after Islamabad talks ended (ID:2246) is the mandate under which Munir's personal Tehran visit operates.

Occurred 16 Apr 2026

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Different Perspectives

Turkey

Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi closed three funds to new money a day after telling regulators they were legally separate from its sanctioned parent, and the central bank held its rate at 37 per cent citing energy-driven inflation risk. Ankara is absorbing balance-sheet and monetary costs from a war it is not fighting.

Qatar

Qatar's foreign ministry said it was coordinating with China during a Beijing visit to restart negotiations, while filing hundreds of letters at the UN documenting Iranian strikes on its own civilian facilities. Doha is mediating for a neighbour it is also formally accusing, a contradiction the referral's clean vote count does not show.

China and Russia

China and Russia voted against the IAEA referral alongside Niger, and Iran's ambassador told the Board that inspections were impossible during a war Iran did not start. Beijing is separately mediating between Doha and Tehran, meaning the same power blocking the West's legal track is running the diplomatic one that might actually end the war.

Jordan

Jordan said it intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian ballistic missiles fired at its territory on 8 September, the war's first sustained salvo against a state that is not a combatant. Amman's 90 per cent interception rate held, but a tenfold jump in missiles fired in a single volley raises what the next one might carry.

United States

CENTCOM said its strikes disabled five Iranian tankers only after two failed missile attempts on a US warship, and Treasury moved the same week to a presumption of denial on all Iran licences. Washington now treats commercial shipping and financial plumbing as one enforcement front rather than two separate tracks.

Iran / IRGC

Iran's foreign ministry called the CENTCOM tanker strikes a war crime and a breach of the UN Charter, while the IRGC named two US destroyers it says it damaged without releasing images. Tehran expects the claims, unverifiable either way, to sustain domestic morale after losing five tankers in a single day.