Why Pakistan's US-Iran mediation offer is joke of the year
India Today
Pakistan, a country struggling to contain violence within and around its own borders, now wants to broker peace between the US and Iran. The contradiction is glaring.
Pakistan, which escaped India’s wrath over its terror attacks very recently, is already at war with Afghanistan, has repeatedly violated the ceasefire along the LoC, provides safe harbour to terrorists and their camps, has been called out multiple times at the UN, and even invites terrorists to officials’ funerals. The same Pakistan has now offered to mediate peace talks in the US-Iran conflict. That’s it. That is the joke.
On March 23, when Reuters reported that Pakistan was among the three countries offering to mediate the US-Iran conflict, it raised eyebrows. It was hard to believe. Then Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted, "Pakistan stands ready to negotiate."
Social media dismissed it as audacity, not diplomacy. The idea that a country accused of exporting terror could present itself as a peace messenger seemed absurd.
That is, until Donald Trump retweeted it.
Not only this, Trump chose Pakistan to hand over his 15-point truce proposal to Iran. And Pakistan, which has been under attack by the Taliban, is offering Islamabad as the venue for negotiations.
A country struggling to contain violence within and around its own borders now wants to broker peace elsewhere. The contradiction is glaring.
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