Pakistan, Nov. 6 -- The unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) constitutes a critical threat to South Asian regional peace by introducing an "act of war" vector into a nuclear-armed theater, weaponizing non-military resources, and destroying six decades of stable transboundary water diplomacy. When India placed its treaty obligations in abeyance following the 2025 Pahalgam attack, it dismantled a crucial framework that had insulated water-sharing from direct military and political conflict since 1960.

This shift destabilizes regional peace through several interconnected escalatory pathways. Pakistan rightly views unrestricted access to the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab) as an existential lifeline, as these wat...