Pakistan’s mediation in Iran-US talks reflects regional power vacuums and proxy war dynamics amid global geopolitical realignment
Original framing: “Shehbaz Sharif says Pakistan ready for next round of negotiations” — Middle East Eye
The US-Pakistan-Iran triangle has been in flux since the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran, which destabilized the region and led to Pakistan’s alignment with the US in the Cold War. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further entrenched Pakistan’s role as a US proxy, while Iran’s Islamic Revolution created a sectarian divide exploited by Gulf states. The 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen deepened these tensions, making mediation a recurring but unsustainable band-aid.
Pakistan’s mediation between Iran and the US is not a neutral act but a symptom of deeper structural forces: the collapse of US hegemony in West Asia post-Afghanistan, the rise of China as a regional balancer, and the weaponization of sectarianism by Gulf states.
The narrative’s focus on state actors obscures how Pakistan’s military-intelligence complex exploits mediation to justify its domestic repression (e.g., Balochistan, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement) while serving as a US proxy in Afghanistan. Historically, Iran-US tensions are rooted in the 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution, yet the framing treats them as a recent diplomatic puzzle. Indigenous mediation systems, like Pashtun *jirgas*, offer more sustainable alternatives but are systematically undermined by state centralization. A viable path forward requires multipolar mediation, climate-security linkages, and the inclusion of marginalized voices—challenges that demand a reckoning with colonial legacies and the militarization of diplomacy.