Watch Pakistan This Week: What It Says Next Will Tell You Exactly Who Is Winning This War

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]That is what two Pakistani officials told the Associated Press this morning about the ceasefire contacts between America and Iran. Alive but fragile.

[00:00:09]Those two words were chosen very carefully and I want to explain exactly what Pakistan knows that makes that specific phrase the most important diplomatic signal of this week. There are two statements sitting next to each other right now that I think most of the coverage has not put in the same sentence yet. And when you put them together, they tell you more about where this war ends than anything else that has been said in the past 24 hours. The first, Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday that Iran has quote informed us that they are in a state of collapse.

[00:00:48]that word collapse from the American president about the country his negotiators are supposedly about to make a deal with. The second Pakistan's two senior officials told the Associated Press this week that despite hardening public positions from Washington and Thrron, Pakistan's political and military leadership is continuing to mediate. Indirect ceasefire contacts they said are still alive but fragile collapse fragile those are the two words that define the situation as of this morning and the gap between those two words between America saying Iran is collapsing and Pakistan saying the contacts are fragile but alive is the gap that Pakistan is trying to hold open right now. And what Pakistan says next about whether that gap can be closed is the signal that tells you exactly who is winning this war. Let me walk you through exactly what has happened in the past 72 hours because the sequence is specific and the specific sequence matters more than any individual piece of it. Iran sent a proposal. The Washington Post confirmed it yesterday.

[00:02:06]Iran offered to reopen the strait of Hormuz if America lifts its naval blockade and the war ends. But nuclear negotiations would be delayed to a separate later phase. That is Iran's offer as of this week. Reopen Hormuz now. Lift the blockade now. Delay nuclear to later. Secretary of State Marco Rubio went on Fox News on Monday and said the proposal was, and I'm giving you the exact words, better than what we thought they were going to submit. Then he said it was unacceptable, better, and unacceptable.

[00:02:40]Both in the same interview, Rubio said nuclear still remains the core issue here and that we can't let them get away with it. He also said Iran cannot normalize a system where Iran decides who uses Hormuz and how much they pay.

[00:02:57]So, America received Iran's best current proposal, described it as better than expected, and rejected it. Oil hit $112 a barrel yesterday. That is the highest it has been since the war began on February 28th. 60 days in 112. Pakistan is trying to keep a mediation alive with fragile indirect contacts while oil climbs to 112 and Trump posts that Iran is collapsing and Rubio says the proposal is better but unacceptable. I want to explain why. In the middle of all of that, Pakistan is still the most important country to watch this week and why what Pakistan says next tells you whether a deal happens or bombs resume.

[00:03:44]Start with what Pakistan is holding right now that nobody else has. Iran transmitted written messages to America through Pakistan last week. Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency confirmed this. The written messages covered Iran's red lines on nuclear issues and the strait of Hormuz. Iran chose to send those red lines in writing formally through Pakistan's army chief field marshal Aim Munir and Prime Minister Shabbaz Sharif. Not through a phone call, not through Oman, not through Russia, through Pakistan in writing.

[00:04:22]That written document is sitting in Islamabad right now. America has not sent envoys to collect it formally.

[00:04:28]Trump said on Fox News, "If they want to talk, they can call us." You know, there is a telephone. America is waiting for a phone call while Pakistan holds Iran's written red lines. Add to that what Aragchi brought back from Moscow on Monday. He sat with Putin. Putin called the Iranian people courageous and heroic. Putin said Russia will do everything that serves Iran's interests.

[00:04:54]Then Aragchi returned from Moscow briefing Pakistan on Russia's position.

[00:05:00]Pakistan is now the only country outside Iran and Russia that has heard both the written red lines and Putin's response to the diplomatic framework.

[00:05:11]Pakistan has more information about the shape of this negotiation than anyone sitting in the situation room in Washington. That information position is what I mean when I say watch Pakistan.

[00:05:22]Not because Pakistan can force a deal, but because what Pakistan says about what it knows tells you whether the gap between Iran's proposal and America's demands has any chance of being bridged.

[00:05:36]Now, let me explain why Iran's proposal reopen Hormuz delay nuclear is the most important diplomatic document of this war and why Pakistan is the country that determines what happens to it. Rubio said it is better than expected and unacceptable. Those two things cannot both be the final answer. Either the proposal gets negotiated into something America can accept or it gets rejected and bombing resumeumés. There is no permanent middle ground where it sits unanswered indefinitely. At 112 oil, American voters are paying over $4 a gallon at the pump. Trump posted yesterday that he is doing something with Iran that other presidents should have done long ago. Those are not the words of a president who is satisfied with a permanent stalemate. Those are the words of a president who needs a visible outcome. Iran's proposal, which Rubio described as better than expected, is the closest thing to a bridgeable document that has appeared in this negotiation. It offers America the thing that most directly addresses the domestic economic pain. Hormos open, oil prices fall, gas at the pump drops. In exchange, it asks America to lift the blockade and end the war while deferring the nuclear question to a separate track. Trump said last week that if Hormuz opens, you can never get a nuclear deal unless you bomb the rest of the country. He understands the trap. If America accepts Hormuz now and defers nuclear, it loses the economic leverage that is currently its only tool to pressure Iran on nuclear. The blockade is the gun. Iran's proposal asks America to put the gun down before the hard conversation begins. That is the trap.

[00:07:33]And Pakistan knows it is the trap because Pakistan has been in the room with both sides. Pakistan knows what America needs to call this a win domestically. Pakistan knows what Iran can give without the IRGC blocking the deal. And Pakistan is the only country trying to find language that lets America pick up the gun again in a different form after the Hormuz deal is done. That is the sequencing problem Pakistan is working on this week. Not whether a deal exists. A deal proposal exists. Iran sent it. It is better than expected. The problem is the sequencing.

[00:08:08]Hormuz first or nuclear first and the country trying to find a bridge between those two sequences is Pakistan. Now add the specific new facts from this morning that changed the picture from where it was 2 days ago. Trump posted yesterday that Iran is in a state of collapse.

[00:08:25]Iran's senior adviser Bathi responded directly telling CBS News this morning that the leadership matter is not what some people in the West think it is a manageable issue. Iran is directly rebutting America's collapse narrative while simultaneously keeping its horm proposal on the table. Iran also banned the export of all steel products this week effective April 26th. Steel is a strategically important material for missile, drone, and ship production.

[00:08:59]Iran banning steel exports while a proposal to open Hormuz is on the table is Iran telling its military that the war footing is not over regardless of what the diplomats are offering. The IRGC's institutional position controlling Hormuz as Iran's definitive strategy coexists with Aragchi's diplomatic offer to open it conditionally. two positions, same government, both active simultaneously.

[00:09:25]Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merittz said this week that America is being humiliated by Iran. Trump fired back at Meritz directly, saying Mertz thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and that he doesn't know what he is talking about. That exchange between Trump and the German chancellor is not a sideshow. It is America's closest European ally publicly saying what the domestic American political conversation has not yet said that the war is at a stalemate. That Iran's negotiating position has not collapsed. That the president who said he would do what others should have done long ago has not yet done it. Pakistan reads that exchange too because Pakistan's mediation is more credible when the external pressure on America to find a deal is visible from European allies, not just from Iran. Every merits statement that American diplomacy is producing humiliation increases the pressure on Washington to take Pakistan's mediation seriously enough to send envoys back to Islamabad. and Rubio calling the proposal better than expected while rejecting it is the most useful thing that has happened for Pakistan's mediation in the past week because better than expected and unacceptable is not a closed door. It is a door that is open one inch. Pakistan's job is to get it open wider. And the specific thing Pakistan needs to do that is find language on the nuclear sequencing question that lets Rubio say the nuclear track is preserved while letting Iran say the blockade ends. That language does not exist yet. But Pakistan is the only country trying to find it. Let me tell you the three things to watch from Pakistan this week that tell you whether that language is being found. The first is whether Aragchi returns to Islamabad after Moscow. His diplomatic tour has been Pakistan, Oman, Pakistan, again Moscow.

[00:11:32]If he returns to Islamabad this week, it means Russia's endorsement of Iran's framework gave Iran something new to bring back. A return trip would signal that Moscow added something to the proposal that makes it more bridgible.

[00:11:47]Pakistan would be the first country outside Iran and Russia to hear that updated version. Watch for ERNA or Iranian state media announcing another Arachi Islamabad visit. That announcement is the most specific positive signal available this week. The second is whether Pakistan's language shifts on the nuclear sequencing question. Pakistan has been describing the Islamabad process as an ongoing diplomatic track. If Pakistan's foreign minister Ishachdar or Maner's office uses the phrase separate track on nuclear matching the language Iran used in its proposal that is Pakistan signaling it believes the Hormuz first nuclear later sequencing can be made to work. That language shift would mean Pakistan has found a formulation that lets both sides describe the outcome without either side having to formally concede the sequencing argument. The third is whether Munir calls Trump directly. The ceasefire was extended twice because Munir and Sharif called Trump and asked him to hold off. That pattern is documented. Trump responds to Munir's calls. If Munir calls Washington this week, it means Pakistan has something specific to deliver. A formulation, a concession, an updated red line from Arachi's Moscow trip that Pakistan believes is worth Trump's time.

[00:13:17]A Munir call to Washington is Pakistan's most direct available signal that the gap has narrowed. Let me address the steelman argument because there is a serious case against everything I have said. The strongest version of the counterargument is this. Pakistan cannot bridge a gap that does not want to be bridged. America's position is that nuclear must be part of any deal. Iran's position is that nuclear cannot be part of the immediate deal. Those are not sequencing differences. They are structural incompatibilities. Pakistan knowing both sides private positions does not help when both sides private positions are the same as their public positions. The honest broker advantage only works if there is a hidden flexibility that the honest broker can surface. If the hidden flexibility on nuclear does not exist, if the IRGC genuinely will not allow any nuclear concession, and if Trump genuinely will not accept a deal without nuclear, then Pakistan's information position is not an advantage. It is just knowledge of an unbridgegable gap. That argument is serious. And Rubio's language that still remains the core issue here. We can't let them get away with it. does not suggest hidden flexibility on the American side. But here is what the counterargument cannot account for.

[00:14:44]Rubio said the proposal was better than expected. Trump has not publicly rejected it. The White House confirmed on Monday that Trump and his national security team discussed Iran's proposal in detail. The situation room met. The proposal was received and discussed.

[00:15:03]America has not formally responded.

[00:15:06]Pakistan is in the gap between Iran submitting a proposal and America formally responding. That gap is Pakistan's operating space. And in that gap, Pakistan knows from both sides what the minimum viable version of each side's position actually is. Not the public version, not the press release version, but the version that Aragchi covered in his meetings with Munir and that Munir carried to Washington. The question is not whether Pakistan can bridge a structural incompatibility. The question is whether the structural incompatibility is as complete as the public statements make it appear. And the answer to that question lives in what Pakistan knows from both private rooms. Not in Rubio's Fox News interview and not in Trump's truth social post.

[00:15:57]What Pakistan says next will tell you whether the gap between better than expected and unacceptable can be closed.

[00:16:05]And that answer from Pakistan is more reliable than anything either side says directly because Pakistan is the only country that has heard what both sides say when they are not performing for the cameras. Watch what Pakistan says this week. Watch whether Aragchi comes back to Islamabad from Moscow with something new. Watch whether Dar or Muner use language about separate tracks on nuclear. Watch whether Muner calls Washington. And watch what Pakistan does not say. Because in this negotiation, Pakistan's silences are as informative as its statements. A Pakistan that says nothing for 48 hours after Arachi returns from Moscow is a Pakistan that received something from Moscow that it is still assessing. A Pakistan that immediately calls the Moscow outcome encouraging is a Pakistan that received something new. A Pakistan that quietly drops the phrase Islamabad process from its official language is a Pakistan that has concluded the process it built cannot bridge the current gap. Iran's proposal is on the table. It is better than expected. America says it is unacceptable. Oil is at $112. Trump says Iran is collapsing. Pakistan says the contacts are fragile but alive. The gap between collapsing and fragile but alive is the gap Pakistan is trying to hold open this Wednesday morning. What Pakistan says next tells you whether the gap is closing or whether the bombs are coming. I will see you in the next one.

[00:17:41]Let me add one more dimension before I close because it is the most under reportported element of Pakistan's role and it happened this week specifically.

[00:17:49]Pakistan's officials this week started using a specific phrase that I want you to pay attention to. They told the Associated Press that indirect ceasefire contacts are still alive but fragile.

[00:18:02]That phrase alive but fragile is not boilerplate. It is Pakistan measuring something precisely. Alive means the channel exists. Fragile means it could break with one wrong move. Pakistan is telling both sides through that phrase communicated to the global press that the mediation needs careful handling right now. Not bold moves, not public pressure. Careful handling that is Pakistan managing both sides simultaneously through public language.

[00:18:36]It is telling America, do not make a move that breaks the fragile channel. It is telling Iran do not make a move that breaks the fragile channel. Both sides heard it. Both sides read the associated press. Pakistan doing that using the press to deliver a message to both parties simultaneously is the behavior of an active diplomatic architect, not a passive messenger. A messenger delivers what it is told. An architect uses every available channel, including press readouts, to shape the behavior of both parties. Pakistan is shaping behavior right now through what it says to journalists in Islamabad. Now add what Pakistan knows specifically about why the contacts are fragile and what would break them. On the American side, Trump posted Iran is collapsing. Rubio called the proposal unacceptable while describing it as better than expected.

[00:19:31]The combination of those two statements suggests America is trying to project maximum strength while keeping the door open. The danger for the fragile channel is that America's maximum strength projection gets read by Iran's IRGC as a signal that America is preparing to resume bombing, which would trigger the IRGC to harden Iran's position further, which would close the gap that Arachi's proposal is trying to bridge. On the Iranian side, Iran banned all steel exports this week. Iran's IRGC posted on Telegram that controlling Hormuz is the definitive strategy of Islamic Iran.

[00:20:14]Iran's military command warned that if America continues its aggressive military actions, Iran will respond strongly. Each of those moves taken while a diplomatic proposal is on the table is Iran's hardliners doing what they always do when the diplomats are moving, publicly asserting the position they will not allow to be compromised.

[00:20:38]Pakistan knows which of those signals is noise and which is signal. Pakistan has heard from Aragchi what Iran's diplomatic corps is authorized to offer.

[00:20:48]Pakistan has heard from Munir's conversations what America's actual bottom line is. The IRGC telegram post and the steel ban are noise relative to what Arachi put in writing. The Rubio unacceptable statement is noise relative to what the situation room actually discussed on Monday. Pakistan reads both sets of noise and hears the signal underneath them. That is the honest broker advantage. Not just knowing both sides positions, knowing which statements are performance and which are instruction. That knowledge is why Pakistan's contacts are alive and Pakistan's management of those contacts through careful language through keeping Arachi coming back to Islamabad through Munir's back channels is why they are still alive this Wednesday morning while oil is at $112 and Trump is saying Iran is collapsing and Rubio is saying the proposal is better than expected and unacceptable.

[00:21:53]Watch what Pakistan says next. Not what Trump posts, not what Rubio says on Fox, not what the IRGC posts on Telegram, what Pakistan says next. Because Pakistan is the only country that knows the difference between the noise and the signal in this negotiation. And what Pakistan says next tells you which one is louder right now. One last thing I want to name specifically because it happened this morning on April 29th and it has not been connected to Pakistan's role in any coverage I have read. Trump fired back at Germany's Chancellor Mertz today. Mertz said last week that America is being humiliated by Iran. Trump's response on Truth Social. Mertz thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He doesn't know what he's talking about. If Iran had a nuclear weapon, the whole world would be held hostage. I am doing something with Iran right now that other nations or presidents should have done long ago. I am doing something right now. That sentence is the most important thing Trump has said about this war in the past two weeks. Not because it tells you what he is doing, because it tells you that Trump himself is framing the current moment as active, not passive.

[00:23:13]Trump is not describing a stalemate. He is not describing a waiting game. He is describing something he is doing right now. That framing is addressed at his domestic audience. But it is also a signal to Pakistan. Pakistan knows what Trump is doing right now because Munir has been the back channel. Because Pakistan's army chief has carried messages between Washington and Thrron that the press has never seen. Trump saying I am doing something right now is Trump telling his audience there is activity that is not visible. The activity that is not visible runs through Pakistan. What Pakistan says next is not separate from what Trump is doing right now. Pakistan is part of what Trump is doing right now. The question is whether what Trump is doing right now is the path to the deal that Rubio described as better than expected or the preparation for the resumption of bombing that the situation room discussed on Monday. Those are two different things and Pakistan is the only country that knows which one it is because Pakistan is in the channel where both are being prepared simultaneously.

[00:24:26]Watch Pakistan, not what it says publicly about the process. Watch the specific words Pakistan uses in the next 48 hours about the proposal that Iran sent and America received and Rubio called better than expected. Because those specific words from the country both sides trust enough to carry their most sensitive communications will tell you more about what Trump is doing right now than anything Trump posts on Truth Social. The contacts are alive. They are fragile. And this Wednesday morning, as oil hits $112 and Trump says Iran is collapsing and Rubio calls the proposal better than expected and unacceptable, Pakistan is the room where those contradictions are being managed. What Pakistan says next tells you how much longer that management can hold. I will see you in the next