Pakistan, May 13 -- The Foreign Office statement on a report by an American news outlet making rounds in social media should be read for what it is: a necessary intervention in a news cycle where insinuation threatens to outrun fact.

Islamabad did not deny that Iranian aircraft were present at Nur Khan Airbase. It denied the conclusion being built around that presence. That distinction matters because the difference between diplomatic logistics and covert military sheltering is not a matter of tone. It is the difference between mediation and misrepresentation.

According to the Foreign Office, aircraft from both Iran and the United States had arrived in Pakistan after the ceasefire and during the initial round of Islamabad Talks to move ...