Pakistan is “cautiously optimistic” about its mediation between Iran and the United States, the military’s spokesman said on Friday in his first interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran this week.
Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday alongside Saudi and Turkish officials.
“Why would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course,” Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said when asked whether the trips were a positive sign.
“The word that we would use is always cautiously optimistic,” added Lt Gen Chaudhry.
There were still “powerful spoilers and detractors,” who believed conflict serves them, he added without naming them.
Speaking in Rawalpindi, he declined to say what was discussed or whether the US had backed the trip.
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin joined CDF Munir in Tehran on Monday.
The talks were the first high-level contact between Iran and all members of the Makkah Defence Alliance since Saudi Arabia was drawn deeper into the conflict. Under the Makkah pact, of which both Saudi Arabia and Turkiye are a part and which was signed on August 7, an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
The pact has taken on added significance as the Iran war has redrawn regional alliances and raised fears of a broader Middle East conflict.
After Monday’s talks, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said regional security should be ensured by regional countries without foreign intervention.
The wording of the pact does not bar new members, Lt Gen Chaudhry said on Friday when asked whether Iran could join.
“Anyone who has a shared vision of collective deterrence and regional peace, why not? Everyone is most welcome,” he said, adding that it was for the political leadership of the three principal parties to decide.
Asked whether more Pakistani troops were being sent to Saudi Arabia under the agreement, the DG ISPR said that it would depend on the situation and the decision of both countries’ political leadership.
He said Pakistan was committed to defending Saudi Arabia and the holy sites of Makkah and Madina.
“We are not part of the Yemeni conflict, which is an intra-Yemen conflict,” he added.
Asked if there would now be larger military-led campaigns in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the imposition of emergency and governor’s rules, Lt Gen Chaudhry said that was not how the army conducted counter-terrorism.
“Our counter-terrorism operations are based on what we call IBOs, intelligence-based operations… The tempo of the freedom of action of (those) IBOs will further increase,” he said.
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