WAR IGNITES AGAIN : In many ways, the end of the talks has come as a surprise, because it took a lot of effort, persuasion, and diplomacy to bring the Iranians and the Americans to sit face to face in these talks.

However, a senior diplomat I was speaking to earlier said to me that it does not mean the lines of communication have been closed. He said this is also a great opportunity, because of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to bring the regional countries most affected by this conflict to sit across the table with the Iranians and sort out their differences.

In that sense, there is still a line of communication that Pakistan wants to see remain open.

The second thing is that, as the talks got under way, the Pakistani prime minister made it amply clear in a post on X that Lebanon and all other parties, including the Houthis and the Iraqi [armed groups] allied to Iran, would hold to the ceasefire.