Pakistan, Aug. 28 -- Washington's assertion that no negotiations with Tehran are taking place was meant to draw a hard public line. It also explains why a reported push for a fresh 60-day window matters. The original timetable under the Islamabad MoU has expired, the public language from both capitals is bitter, and the war's political terms have narrowed into sanctions, navigation and competing claims of sovereignty. Yet the one framework to which the parties and every new mediator still return bears Pakistan's name.

The Foreign Office was similarly right to reject claims that Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Tehran as an envoy of the United States. Islamabad has acquired its standing precisely because it has kept its own voice, its own...