{"id":3558,"date":"2026-10-31T01:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T20:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2026-10-31T01:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T20:04:17","slug":"pakistan-cautiously-optimistic-on-iran-us-mediation-dg-ispr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3558","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan ‘cautiously optimistic’ on Iran-US mediation: DG ISPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pakistan is \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d about its mediation between Iran and the United States, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Friday in his \u200bfirst interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday alongside Saudi and Turkish officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course,\u201d Chaudhry said when asked whether the trips were a positive sign.<\/p>\n

Pact does not bar new members<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe word \u200bthat we would use is always cautiously optimistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There were still \u201cpowerful spoilers and detractors,\u201d who believed \u200bconflict serves them, DG ISPR added without naming them.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Rawalpindi, he declined to say what was discussed or whether the US had backed the trip.<\/p>\n

Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief \u200bIbrahim Kalin joined Field Marshal Munir in Tehran on Monday.<\/p>\n

Their two countries signed a joint defence pact with Pakistan on August 7, saying an attack on any signatory will \u200bbe treated as an attack on all.<\/p>\n

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement has gained significance as the Iran war has redrawn regional alliances and raised fears of a broader Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n

While the three signatories say the agreement aims at collective deterrence and regional security, analysts see its evolution as closely tied to regional powers\u2019 efforts to manage \u200bthe fallout from the Iran-US confrontation.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s talks, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, said regional security should be ensured by regional \u200bcountries without foreign intervention.<\/p>\n

The wording of the pact does not bar new members, Lt-Gen Chaudhry said on Friday when asked whether Iran could join.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who has a shared vision of collective \u200cdeterrence and \u2060regional peace, why not? Everyone is most welcome,\u201d he said, adding that it was for the political leadership of the three principal parties to decide.<\/p>\n

Asked whether more Pakistani troops were being sent to Saudi Arabia under the agreement, he said that would depend on the situation and the decision of both countries\u2019 political leadership.<\/p>\n

DG ISPR said Pakistan was committed to defending Saudi Arabia and the holy sites of Makkah and Madinah. \u201cWe are not part of the Yemeni conflict, which is an \u200bintra-Yemen conflict,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Fighting between Saudi \u200bArabia and Yemen\u2019s Houthi group \u2060has been reignited by the Iran conflict, stoking fears of a wider war.<\/p>\n

Asked if there would now be larger military-led campaigns in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the imposition of emergency and governor\u2019s rules, Lt Gen Chaudhry said that was not how the army conducted counter-terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur counter-terrorism operations are based on what we call IBOs, intelligence-based operations\u2026 The tempo of the freedom of action of (those) IBOs will further increase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistan is \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d about its mediation between Iran and the United States, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Friday in his \u200bfirst interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran this week. Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday alongside Saudi and Turkish officials. \u201cWhy would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course,\u201d Chaudhry said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}