India, June 2 -- The US and Iran are yet to make a breakthrough in peace negotiations. Meanwhile, as the Donald Trump administration struggles to disentangle itself from the war - which a legacy-obsessed White House will soon be forced to contend with as Congressional mid-term elections near - Pakistan is benefitting from it all. And the country's army chief, Asim Munir, is consolidating power in the background.

Pakistan and Iran - one a Sunni nuclear power and the other the seat of Shia power, accused of chasing parity with nuclear-armed States - are now locked in an awkward dance of diplomacy, as Islamabad, propped up by the shadows that run Rawalpindi, becomes the central messenger in the dialogue between Tehran and Washington. Since ...