Afghanistan, Oct. 14 -- Pakistan is not balancing between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the present West Asian war, and the distinction matters because balancing implies an even-handedness Islamabad abandoned long ago.
What the Pakistan Army runs is an arbitrage operation, selling collective defence guarantees to Riyadh, sanctions-resistant logistics to Tehran and mediation services to Washington, collecting from each buyer while disclosing to none of them the terms offered to the others. The arrangement has held because all three parties had reasons to tolerate it, but it will not hold indefinitely, and the first cracks have appeared in Tehran, where Pakistan is now described in parliamentary language as an intervenor rather than a mediator. F...