Pakistan, Aug. 9 -- There is one question Pakistan's critics should answer before declaring its Iran diplomacy a failure. When Washington and Tehran were shooting at each other, who got them into the same room?

And there is another.

After the ceasefires broke, the threats returned, and missiles again began speaking louder than diplomats; which country did both camps still describe as the mediator?

The answer to both is Pakistan.

That is where any serious assessment of Islamabad's role must begin.

Pakistan did not start the war between Iran and the United States. Pakistan did not write Washington's nuclear demands. Pakistan does not control the Revolutionary Guards, Donald Trump, Israel, the Strait of Hormuz or the regional calculatio...