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Pakistan’s clout grows as US official’s visit underscores its go-between role in Iranian affairs
- The visit by John Bass to Islamabad comes a week after Iran and Pakistan held talks on construction of their long-delayed gas pipeline
- The US also wants Pakistan to engage Afghanistan’s Taliban government on issues ranging from trade to refugees
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A recent visit by US Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass to Pakistan could mark a seismic shift in regional dynamics, with implications that could resonate as far as the Middle East, according to analysts.
The visit by the former US ambassador to Afghanistan underscored a critical juncture in US-Pakistan relations, they said, with Islamabad poised to be wooed by Washington on many fronts – from its strategic position amid Iran-Israel tensions to an energy deal and the issue of Afghan refugees.
“This visit of the US undersecretary is very significant in multiple contexts,” Nausheen Wasi, an international relations academic at the state-run Karachi University, said of Bass’ two-day trip from Tuesday.
Pakistan’s foreign office in a statement on Tuesday said “a productive discussion on all aspects of bilateral relation was held” during Bass’ visit, following a trip to Islamabad by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi a week earlier.
Raisi’s visit came after Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel on April 15 involving ballistic missiles and drones in response to an earlier assault by the Jewish-majority state on the Iranian embassy in Syria. Israel reportedly retaliated several days later targeting military sites in Iran although Tehran had downplayed the counterstrike.
With tensions in the region running high, any further escalation by Israel would leave Pakistan, as a neighbour of Iran, the only “trusted ally to the US” in the vicinity, Wasi said.
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