Pakistan and Qatar announced Monday the successful conclusion of an initial summit at a luxury resort overlooking Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne, where leaders of the United States and Iran kicked off negotiations on a roadmap to achieve a peace deal within 60 days.
But the two intermediaries don’t see their role ending yet. “The mediating parties will continue to do their utmost to ensure that the negotiations continue to be conducted in a constructive atmosphere to reach a final deal,” the two neighbors of Iran said in a joint statement on June 22.
The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as the provisional deal between the U.S. and Iran is formally known, aims to achieve a comprehensive agreement between the two decadeslong foes. On the agenda are most of the outstanding issues that have fueled their mutually hostile relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution transformed Tehran from an ally of Washington to its main adversary in the Middle East.
The MOU formally ends the war, extends the ceasefire on all fronts including Lebanon, and reopens the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has restated its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons and permitted renewed international oversight of its nuclear program. The two will negotiate further details on that point before a final agreement. For its part, Washington has agreed to relax restrictions on Iranian oil exports and refrain from imposing new sanctions during the talks, with the possibility of substantial economic incentives if Tehran signs the final deal.
Pakistan’s chief of defense forces, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, laid the groundwork toward the MOU in late March. Drawing on the strong ties he forged in the last year and a half with U.S. President Donald Trump and cordial relations with security counterparts in Iran, Munir initiated a diplomatic effort to stop the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, then underway for nearly a month. The first public hints about Islamabad’s initiative came on March 24 from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on March 24.
Two weeks later, on April 8, Islamabad brokered a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran after 40 days of continuous fighting. Israel, which was not part of those or subsequent talks, continued its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, a stance Tehran and Islamabad termed a violation of the agreement’s spirit.
On April 11, Islamabad facilitated the highest-level talks between Iran and the U.S. in 47 years. A delegation led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance engaged in 21 hours of negotiations with senior Iranian leaders, led by Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. While those talks ultimately collapsed, they left the door open for further diplomacy and prevented a resumption of full-scale war between the two countries.
Capitalizing on a regional consensus among the Gulf Arab nations to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Qatar entered the discussions around that time and began supplementing Pakistani efforts. In recent years, the gas-rich nation has built a reputation for mediating disputes between parties that are often reluctant to communicate, including the 2020 agreement between Washington and the Taliban that led to the precipitous withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan.
In the following weeks, Qatari negotiators worked to bring Iran and the U.S. closer on all important outstanding issues. As reported by the Financial Times, veteran Qatari mediators Ali al-Thawadi and Hamad al-Kubaisi traveled to Tehran and also met with U.S. officials. Doha also hosted senior Iranian figures in its effort to stave off a relapse into war and maintain momentum towards an agreement.
“The Qataris quietly did most of the heavy lifting to bridge the two sides,” one Western diplomat told the Financial Times, while also acknowledging Pakistan’s role in brokering the process.
Field Marshal Munir made two trips to Tehran, one in April and one in May. He repeatedly sent Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, a prominent member of Pakistan’s sizeable Shia minority, as his personal emissary to build trust and facilitate agreements over unresolved issues.
On June 21, Vance acknowledged Munir’s key role in brokering what could become a permanent settlement between Washington and Tehran.
“I have joked that I have two very, very important people in my life, an Indian and a Pakistani,” Vance told journalists then on as the leaders gathered in Lucerne. “The Indian is my wife, and the Pakistani is Field Marshal Munir. And I’ve probably talked to Field Marshal Munir more than I’ve talked to anybody else over the last three months.”
There may be more such talk ahead. The often fierce criticism of the MOU in the U.S., Israel and Iran suggest that Pakistan and Qatar are still far from achieving a permanent settlement between Washington and Tehran.
