DG ISPR: Pakistan 'cautiously optimistic' on Iran-US mediation after Field Marshal's two Tehran trips

Pakistan is "cautiously optimistic" about its mediation between Iran and the United States, the army's spokesman, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said on Friday in Rawalpindi, in his first interview since a high-level delegation went to Tehran this week, Dawn reported. The Express Tribune carried the same remarks.

What he said on Iran and the US

Field Marshal Asim Munir, the Chief of Defence Forces and army chief, has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday alongside Saudi and Turkish officials. Asked whether the visits had gone well, the Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations said: "Why would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course."

He would not say what was discussed or whether Washington had backed the trip. He warned that there are "powerful spoilers and detractors" who believe conflict serves their interests, without naming them.

The remarks come as tankers are being hit near the Strait of Hormuz (our story) and Iran says it is discussing a seven-day plan with mediators to end the war and reopen the strait (our story). Any easing there matters directly to Pakistan, where oil prices drive the daily petrol price.

Could Iran join the Makkah Defence Alliance?

Asked about the pact Pakistan signed with Saudi Arabia on 7 August, under which an attack on one member counts as an attack on all, he said its wording does not bar new members. "Anyone who has a shared vision of collective deterrence and regional peace, why not? Everyone is most welcome," he said, adding that the decision belongs to the political leadership of the three principal parties.

On sending more Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia, he said it would depend on the situation and on decisions by both governments, and repeated that Pakistan is committed to defending Saudi Arabia and the holy sites of Makkah and Madina. On Yemen he said: "We are not part of the Yemeni conflict, which is an intra-Yemen conflict."

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

With an emergency and governor's rule now in force in KP, he said large military-led campaigns are not how the army fights terrorism. Operations will remain "intelligence-based operations", he said, and "the tempo of the freedom of action of (those) IBOs will further increase."

What to watch

The next tests are whether Iran and the US agree to any pause before the US midterm elections on 3 November, and whether Pakistan's role is acknowledged in public by either side. Fuel and gold prices in Pakistan will react to any news from Hormuz: follow them on our petrol price and gold price pages.