Lebanon’s Envoy Praises Pakistan’s Role in US-Iran Peace Efforts, and Islamabad’s Diplomacy Is Being Noticed
ISLAMABAD: In diplomacy, the biggest statements sometimes arrive in a single sentence. After meeting Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Lebanon’s ambassador Abdulaziz Issa expressed deep appreciation for Pakistan’s active role in facilitating peace negotiations between Iran and the United States. The sentence is news in itself, and also a signal: other countries’ envoys are now saying out loud what Islamabad has been doing quietly.
What the meeting covered
The conversation was not limited to peace. The two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in trade, education, tourism and sports. Iqbal set out Pakistan’s export potential in pharmaceuticals, textiles, rice, cement, construction materials and light engineering goods, proposed Pakistani trade exhibitions in Lebanon and reciprocal business delegations, and suggested semester-long student exchanges between the two countries’ universities with credits recognised on both sides. The ambassador, for his part, briefed the minister on improving conditions in Lebanon.
Why the praise carries weight
Context is the real story. US-Iran tensions had put the whole region at risk, and the fallout — through the global economy and inflation — was reaching countries like Pakistan. Iqbal has said in Narowal that the talks are taking place in Islamabad, that delegations from both sides are present in the capital, and that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Army Chief Asim Munir for the effort. Rather than reacting negatively, he argued, India should acknowledge the role too, because regional peace serves everyone. Against that backdrop, praise from the envoy of Lebanon — a country that has lived inside the region’s tensions — reads as more than courtesy. It reinforces a shift in how Pakistan is being seen in this crisis: not as a party to the conflict, but as a mediator. That change of perception may be the real achievement.
