Pakistan’s military leadership remains watchful but hopeful about efforts to cool the confrontation between Iran and the United States, the army’s media chief said on Friday in Rawalpindi.
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR — the military’s public messaging wing), gave his first remarks after a senior Pakistani group returned from Tehran earlier this week. He framed the outlook as “cautiously optimistic.”
Two Tehran visits and regional partners
Field Marshal Asim Munir, who is steering Islamabad’s push to lower the temperature in the roughly eight-month Iran conflict, travelled to the Iranian capital twice during October. His latest stop was on Monday, when he was accompanied by Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin.
Asked whether those journeys suggested improvement, Lt Gen Chaudhry replied that repeated travel by the Field Marshal would not make sense without “some positivity,” and then repeated the preferred phrase: always cautiously optimistic.
He would not outline the substance of the talks or confirm whether Washington had endorsed the mission. He also said “powerful spoilers and detractors” still exist — people who, in his words, see advantage in keeping the fighting going — though he named none of them.
After the Monday meetings, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, argued that regional states should secure their own neighbourhood without outside interference.
Defence pact, holy sites and Yemen
On 7 August, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey entered a joint defence understanding often linked to Mecca, under which an assault on one party is treated as an assault on all. The arrangement has gained weight as the Iran conflict reshapes regional alignments and feeds worry about a wider Middle East war.
Nothing in that text, Lt Gen Chaudhry said, shuts out further members. Pressed on whether Iran could enter, he answered that anyone sharing a vision of collective deterrence and regional peace would be welcome, while stressing that the political leaders of the three core parties must decide.
Any extra Pakistani troop presence in Saudi Arabia, he added, would hinge on conditions on the ground and choices by both governments’ civilian authorities. He underlined Islamabad’s pledge to protect Saudi Arabia and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and stated that Pakistan is not involved in the Yemeni fighting, which he described as an “intra-Yemen conflict.” Sources note that Saudi–Houthi clashes have flared again amid the wider Iran crisis.
Home front: KP and IBOs
Separately, he addressed the federal move on 11 October to suspend the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and detain Chief Minister Sohail Afridi. Islamabad had blamed the province for weak action against militants; PTI denies that charge and calls the step a bid to silence protest.
Asked about broader army-run sweeps in the province, he rejected that model. Counter-terror work, he said, rests on IBOs — intelligence-based operations — and the pace of those targeted actions will rise further.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 7 August: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey sign their joint defence understanding.
- 11 October: The federal government suspends the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet and detains Chief Minister Sohail Afridi.
- October (two visits): Field Marshal Asim Munir travels to Tehran twice as part of de-escalation efforts.
- Monday (late October): Saudi and Turkish officials accompany him in Tehran for high-level talks.
- Friday, 30 October 2026: DG ISPR speaks in Rawalpindi, calling the mediation outlook cautiously optimistic.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Fauj ke word bolne wale officer ne kaha ke Pakistan Iran aur America ke darmiyan sulah ki koshish mein ummeed rakhta hai, lekin bilkul sure nahi. Army chief Asim Munir is mahine Tehran do dafa gaye, aik dafa Saudi aur Turkey ke officials ke saath. Woh kehte hain ke kuch log ab bhi jang chalana chahte hain, is liye ehtiyat zaroori hai. Is se aam logon ke liye seedha yeh matlab hai ke Pakistan region mein ladai kam karne ki koshish kar raha hai taake aur badi jang ka khatra kam ho.
