Middle power, major impact

Express Tribune

7 hours ago

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In between the headlines and breaking news on the Iran-Israel ceasefire, one country stayed largely out of the spotlight but played its part with quiet confidence: Pakistan. While global attention was fixed on the power moves of Washington and Tehran, Islamabad chose the path of working steadily behind the scenes. It didn't chase headlines or dramatic gestures, but its calm and calculated approach became a case study on how a middle power can still make a meaningful difference when it sticks to smart, steady diplomacy.
For all the noise made about great power politics, the Middle East remains a region where missteps by even peripheral actors can have oversized consequences. Nonetheless, in a climate where strikes and bluster existed, Pakistan opted to move with caution and calm. It denounced Israeli aggression at a remarkably early stage, supported Iran and, most importantly, did not fall into the trap of escalating its discourse so that it was beyond use in terms of diplomacy. This was not sitting on the fence. It had a calibrated positioning.
The fact that Pakistan nominated US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize was initially treated with ridicule by some of the critics. Yet as hindsight has shown, it also had a definite purpose to paint Trump as a possible peacemaker, not an actor in escalation. It was, in many ways, a diplomatic gambit and the kind which paid off when Trump, after the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, chose not to retaliate further following Iran's missile response. While it's impossible to draw a straight line between Islamabad's messaging and Washington's decisions, the timing and tone of Trump's remarks after his meeting with the Field Marshall were telling. He credited Pakistan with "knowing Iran very well". That's not flattery — it's influence.
The reason why the approach that Pakistan used was different was that it never attempted to play bigger than it actually was. It was not pursuing headlines or courtship of domestic populism. Rather, it used all the resources it had through quiet diplomacy with regional partners such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as maintaining contact with Iran and co-sponsoring a UN ceasefire resolution together with China and Russia. Stated shortly, Pakistan behaved as it is becoming a responsible regional stakeholder.
What many observers missed is how much this crisis tested Pakistan's ability to juggle conflicting interests. Domestically, the nomination of Trump triggered backlash yet Pakistan stuck to its line, not because it was blindly committed to the US, but because it saw a window for de-escalation and took it.
At the same time, Pakistan made it clear that it would not be dragged into Iran's internal or military calculations. False reports that Pakistan had offered nuclear backing to Tehran were swiftly and firmly denied. That wasn't just damage control but a signal to the international community that Islamabad's strategic doctrine remains narrowly defined and regionally focused.
This matters. This is a region where states have a tendency of making passionate and emotional statements of will, and then failing to do much in its implementation, but Pakistan did not waver. Its sure hand may have not been the determinant effect in terminating enmity, but it definitely helped form the environment where a ceasefire became a reality.
Pakistan has longstanding ties with Gulf countries, historical tension with Israel, and a border with Iran. But perhaps that is precisely why its balanced posture was so impactful. By refusing to act as a proxy for anyone, and by staying within the lines of international law and diplomatic engagement, Pakistan elevated its position.
This wasn't flashy diplomacy, but it was effective. In a global environment where credibility is hard to earn and easy to lose, Pakistan may have just strengthened its standing by doing something refreshingly rare: keeping its cool.