Pakistan positioned itself as an intermediary between the US and Iran this week. It conveyed a 15-point American plan to end the war to the leadership in Tehran, officials briefed on the diplomacy said, and it has offered to host peace talks.
For India, the news adds to a troubling trend. It is watching warily as Pakistan continues to strengthen its ties with US President Donald Trump while its own relations with the US have been rocky.
On the same day that the Pakistani gambit was reported, the American ambassador in New Delhi announced a phone call had taken place between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The contents of their call were not made public. Modi posted on social media afterwards that both leaders “agreed to stay in touch regarding efforts towards peace and stability” in West Asia and that opening the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil and gas shipping route off Iran’s coast, was of paramount importance. The closure of the strait threatens India with economic devastation, as it does Pakistan and most of Asia.
“Normally,” said Happymon Jacob, a professor of diplomacy at Shiv Nadar University near New Delhi, the intermediary role would be played by the United Nations or a country like Qatar. But given Trump is "generally negative and dismissive about the UN" and the fact that Iran is bombing Qatar, the need for another approach was obvious, he said.
Pakistan is a natural fit for the job in several ways. It has a big border with Iran, longstanding experience working with the American military, and defence ties with Saudi Arabia and China. Since last summer, after an intense but short conflict between Pakistan and India that Trump claimed to have settled, Pakistani leaders have enjoyed a warm welcome in Washington.
Unlike India, Pakistan is enthusiastic about third-party mediations. India’s position with regard to the war in Iran was made awkward by Modi’s vaunted closeness with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, who hosted him in Tel Aviv two days before Israel and the US attacked Iran.
T.C.A. Raghavan, a former Indian diplomat who led his country’s mission in Pakistan, acknowledged there had been “a greater convergence in the US-Pakistan relationship in the past year and a half” and that if Pakistan provided a platform for fruitful talks with Iran, that relationship would grow stronger yet.
But Raghavan said India should avoid the "point of view that sees everything related to Pakistan as a zero-sum game". What is good for Pakistan, he argued, can be good for India. “Clearly, putting an end to this conflict is hugely advantageous to us and for everyone,” he said.
If Modi needed reassurance from the US, Elbridge Colby, the under-secretary of defence for policy, was on hand. He spent Tuesday in New Delhi talking up the "firm and durable basis for our partnership".
The flattery bypassed most of the jolts that shook the US-India relationship over the past year. Those included Trump’s tariffs and further penalties he imposed over India’s purchases of Russian oil. Trump has also called India a “dead economy” and cracked down on work visas for Indians, leaving many in New Delhi wondering if their ties had any future at all.
New York Times News Service
