Pakistan, June 24 -- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's visit to Islamabad was notable not merely because it came days after the first round of post-war US-Iran talks in Switzerland, nor because it was his first major foreign trip since the end of the Iran war. What made the visit significant was the message it carried. Standing beside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Iranian president praised Pakistan's "responsible and visionary" role during the crisis and spoke of elevating bilateral relations to a level befitting the two countries' standing in the Islamic world. Such diplomatic courtesies are common. The timing, however, was not.

The visit came at a moment when West Asia is beginning to adjust to a reality few anticipated severa...