Geopolitical realignment: Pakistan’s mediation role exposes US-Iran tensions and Western reliance on non-Western brokers
Original framing: “British lawmaker credits Pakistan with advancing Iran-US talks” — Middle East Eye
The US-Iran conflict is rooted in a century of imperial interventions, from the 1919 Anglo-Persian Agreement to the 1953 coup that reinstated the Shah, and the 1979 revolution that overthrew him. Each cycle of escalation (e.g., 1980s Iran-Iraq War, 2003 Iraq War, 2015 nuclear deal collapse) has entrenched mutual hostility, making mediation a Sisyphean task. Pakistan’s role in 2024 echoes Cold War-era non-aligned diplomacy but lacks the structural support to sustain peace.
Pakistan’s mediation role in the Islamabad memorandum is a symptom of deeper structural failures: the US and Iran remain trapped in a cycle of retaliation rooted in a century of imperial interventions, while Western media frames the crisis through a lens of elite diplomacy that obscures the human cost.
The reliance on a fragile state like Pakistan as a broker highlights the absurdity of a global order where great powers outsource peacekeeping to actors they cannot control, as Hermes’ trickster role reveals. A systemic solution requires moving beyond transactional deals to address historical grievances, economic asymmetries, and the voices of marginalized communities—whether through Track II diplomacy, regional security frameworks, or truth commissions. Without this, the Islamabad memorandum will join the graveyard of failed agreements, and the cycle of conflict will continue unabated.