{"id":246856,"date":"2026-04-11T23:19:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T17:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=246856"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:25:24","slug":"fragile-ceasefire-pakistans-glory-israels-sabotage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/fragile-ceasefire-pakistans-glory-israels-sabotage\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragile Ceasefire: Pakistan\u2019s Glory & Israel\u2019s Sabotage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rajan Philips<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajan Philips<\/p><\/div>\n

After threatening to annihilate one of the planet\u2019s oldest civilizations, TACO Trump chickened out again by grasping the ceasefire lifeline that Pakistan had assiduously prepared. Trump needed the ceasefire badly to stem the mounting opposition to the war in America. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted the war to continue because he needed it badly for his political survival. So, he contrived a fiction and convinced Trump that Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire. Trump as usual may not have noticed that Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Shariff had clearly indicated Lebanon\u2019s inclusion in his announcement of the ceasefire at 7:50 PM, Tuesday, on X. Ten minutes before Donald Trump\u2019s fake deadline.<\/p>\n

True to form on Wednesday, Israel unleashed the heaviest assault by far on Lebanon, reportedly killing over 300 people, the highest single-day death toll in the current war. Iran responded by re-closing the Strait of Hormuz and questioning the need for talks in Islamabad over the weekend. There were other incidents as well, with an oil refinery attacked in Iran, and Iranian drones and missiles slamming oil and gas infrastructure in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.<\/p>\n

The US tried to insist that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire, with the argumentative US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Budapest, Hungary, campaigning for Viktor Orban, calling the whole thing\u00a0 <\/span>a matter of \u201cbad faith negotiation\u201d as well as \u201clegitimate misunderstanding\u201d on the part of Iran, and warning Iran that \u201cit would be dumb to jeopardise its\u00a0ceasefire with Washington\u00a0over Israel\u2019s attacks in Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as the attack in Lebanon drew international condemnation \u2013 from Pope Leo to UN Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, and several world leaders, and amidst fears of Lebanon becoming another Gaza with 1,500 people including 130 children killed and more than a million people displaced, Washington got Israel to stop its \u201clawn mowing\u201d in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to “open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible,”. Lebanese President Joeseph Aoun has also called for \u201ca ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, followed by direct negotiations between them.” Israel\u2019s involvement in Lebanon remains a wild card that threatens the ceasefire and could scuttle the talks between the US and Iran scheduled for Saturday in Islamabad.<\/p>\n

Losers and Winners<\/span> <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

After the ceasefire, both the Trump Administration and Iran have claimed total victories while the Israeli government wants the war to continue. The truth is that after more than a month into nonstop bombing of Iran, America and Israel have won nothing. Only Iran has won something it did not have when Trump and Netanyahu started their war. Iran now has not only a say over but control of the Strait of Hormuz. The ceasefire acknowledges this. Both Trump and Netanyahu are under fire in their respective countries and have no allies in the world except one another.<\/p>\n

The real diplomatic winner is Pakistan. Salman Rushdie\u2019s palimpsest-country has emerged as a key player in global politics and an influential mediator in a volatile region. Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Field Marshal Asim Munir have both been praised by President Trump and credited for achieving the current ceasefire. The Iranian regime has also been effusive in its praise of Pakistan\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

It is Pakistan that persisted with the effort after initial attempts at backdoor diplomacy by Egypt, Pakistan and T\u00fcrkiye started floundering. Sharing a 900 km border and deep cultural history with Iran, and having a skirmish of its own on the eastern front with Afghanistan, Pakistan has all the reason to contain and potentially resolve the current conflict in Iran. Although a majority Sunni Muslim country, Pakistan is home to the second largest Shia Muslim population after Iran, and is the easterly terminus of the Shia Arc that stretches from Lebanon. The country also has a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia that includes Pakistan\u2019s nuclear cover for the Kingdom. An open conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would have put Pakistan in a dangerously awkward position.<\/p>\n

It is now known and Trump has acknowledged that China had a hand in helping Iran get to the diplomatic table. Pakistan used its connections well to get Chinese diplomatic reinforcement. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar flew to Beijing to brief his Chinese counterpart and secured China\u2019s public support for the diplomatic efforts. The visit produced a Five-Point Plan that became a sequel to America\u2019s 15-point proposal and the eventual ten-point offer by Iran.<\/p>\n

There is no consensus between parties as to which points are where and who is agreeing to what. The chaos is par for the course the way Donald Trumps conducts global affairs. So, all kudos to Pakistan for quietly persisting with old school toing and froing and producing a semblance of an agreement on a tweet without a parchment.<\/p>\n

It is also noteworthy that Israel has been excluded from all the diplomatic efforts so far. And it is remarkable, but should not be surprising, the way Trump has sidelined Isreal from the talks. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been enjoying overwhelming support of Israelis for starting the war of his life against Iran and getting the US to spearhead it. But now the country is getting confused and is exposed to Iranian missiles and drones far more than ever before. The Israeli opposition is finally coming alive realizing what little has Netanyahu\u2019s wars have achieved and at what cost. Israel has alienated a majority of Americans and has no ally anywhere else.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It will be a busy Saturday in Islamabad, where the US and Iranian delegations are set to meet. Iran would seem to have insisted and secured the assurance that the US delegation will be led by Vice President Vance, while including Trump\u2019s personal diplomats – Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Iran has not announced its team but it is expected to be led, for protocol parity,\u00a0 <\/span>by Iran\u2019s Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and will likely include its suave Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Vice President Vance\u2019s attendance will be the most senior US engagement with Iran since Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal under President Obama.<\/p>\n

The physical arrangements for the talks are still not public although Islamabad has been turned into a security fortress given the stakes and risks involved. The talks are expected to be \u2018indirect\u2019, with the two delegations in separate rooms and Pakistani officials shuttling between them. The status of Iran\u2019s enriched uranium and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will be the major points of contention. After Netanyahu\u2019s overreach on Wednesday, Lebanon is also on the short list<\/p>\n

The 2015 nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan) took months of negotiations and involved multiple parties besides the US and Iran, including China, France, Germany, UK, Russia and the EU. That served the cause of regional and world peace well until Trump tore up the deal to spite Obama. It would be too much to expect anything similar after a weekend encounter in Islamabad. But if the talks could lead to at least a permanent ceasefire and the return to diplomacy that would be a huge achievement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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