New Delhi:
April 11 was supposed to be Pakistan‘s big moment. It was to play the ‘peacemaker’ between the United States and Iran, to bring bitter rivals together and end a war that has killed over 5,000 people, caused billions of dollars in damages to public and energy infrastructure, and scared oil prices past US$110 a barrel, leading to soaring fuel prices and runaway inflation fears.
Successful peace talks, coming after it acted as a US-Iran backchannel to help broker a 14-day ceasefire, would have lifted Islamabad to the role of a key regional player, a leg-up over India.
But 21 hours later those dreams were shattered.
JD Vance stood grim-faced and disapproving; Iran, the US Vice President – handpicked by Tehran to deal with in these talks because he was seen as a ‘moderate’ White House voice – had rejected a “final and best offer” to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes and re-open the Strait of Hormuz to all oil tanker and cargo ship traffic.
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