Aimen Dean@AimenDean
If you’re looking for a polite take, this isn’t it.
I’ve said it repeatedly on the Conflicted podcast: Pakistan was never a neutral mediator between Washington and Tehran. Not for a second. What we’re watching now is not diplomacy, it’s pure manipulation dressed up as statecraft.
Let’s call things by their proper names. Under field marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan isn’t some balanced civilian democracy playing honest broker. It’s a military system with a democratic façade, pursuing its own interests with a level of cynicism that should surprise no one who has followed its behavior over the past two decades.
What did they sell to Donald Trump? A fantasy. A pipe dream. That the Islamic Republic can be reasoned with. That it is pragmatic, not ideological. That it is capable of compromise if only you flatter it enough and give it incentives. In short: that you can extract “the deal of the century” from a regime whose entire strategic doctrine is built on resisting precisely that outcome.
And Trump - obsessed with the optics of a deal - bought it.
Meanwhile, senior voices inside Pakistan weren’t even pretending neutrality. A defence minister pushing conspiratorial narratives, blaming the “Zionists,” portraying Iran as a victim, while 6,000 missiles and drones were raining down on GCC states that host millions of Pakistani workers. That alone should have been disqualifying.
If a country is willing to throw its own economic lifeline (the Gulf) under the bus for ideological or tactical alignment with Tehran, what exactly makes anyone think it would safeguard American interests?
And here’s the uncomfortable part: this isn’t new.
We’ve seen this movie before. The United States spent years, treasure, and blood in Afghanistan, only to discover that Osama bin Laden, and his network, were living comfortably in Pakistan all along - while Pakistan was simultaneously cashing in on US counterterrorism billions in funding. They didn’t fail to find the target. They bloody managed it.
Why end the hunt when the hunt itself pays and pays pretty well?
Fast forward to today, and the pattern repeats, only this time the battlefield is Iran. At the very moment the regime was under maximum pressure (militarily strained, economically cornered, strategically exposed) Pakistan steps in, not to mediate, but to buy Tehran time. Time to regroup, breathe, and ultimately survive.
That’s not mediation. That’s intervention - on one side.
From a cold, historical lens, this may well be remembered as the pivot point. The moment when pressure was lifted prematurely. When momentum was lost. When a winnable strategic position was traded for the illusion of a negotiated breakthrough that was never going to materialise, ever!
Five years from now, looking back, this could read like a familiar chapter:
First Afghanistan - undermined from within.
Now Iran - diluted from without.
In both cases, Pakistan didn’t just mislead Washington. It shaped the battlefield to its advantage, all while claiming partnership with a clueless US administration.
And Washington, once again, chose to believe what it wanted to hear.
