Pakistan, Sept. 27 -- On February 28, American and Israeli strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a string of senior officials, opening a war that has since dragged in Gulf states, shut the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping, and rattled a global economy still recovering from the last set of shocks. Nobody expected Pakistan to end up brokering the peace.

Islamabad's first instinct was simply to avoid picking a side, condemning the strikes on Iran and, just as pointedly, condemning Iranian retaliation against Gulf neighbours. That refusal to commit turned out to be exactly the asset nobody else in the region could offer. China, despite having brokered the Saudi-Iran rapprochement back in 2023, largely sat this one ...