By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Tuesday categorically rejected a CBS News report that accused Islamabad of quietly permitting Iranian military aircraft to park at one of its air bases while positioning itself as a mediator in the US-Iran conflict, dismissing the account as “misleading and sensationalised.”
The statement came hours after CBS News published an exclusive report citing unnamed US officials. The network reported that days after President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran in early April, Tehran dispatched multiple aircraft to Pakistan’s Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi. Among them, the report said, was an Iranian Air Force RC-130 — a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering variant of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules tactical transport aircraft.
Pakistani officials described the CBS account as speculative and suggested it was intended to undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts. “Pakistan categorically rejects the CBS News report regarding the presence of Iranian aircraft at Nur Khan Airbase as misleading and sensationalised,” the Foreign Office said in a detailed written statement. “Such speculative narratives appear aimed at undermining ongoing efforts for regional stability and peace.”
The Foreign Office offered a straightforward explanation for the aircraft’s presence. It said that following the ceasefire and during the initial round of what have become known as the Islamabad Talks, a number of aircraft from both Iran and the United States arrived in Pakistan. Their purpose, officials said, was strictly logistical: to transport and support diplomatic personnel, security teams and administrative staff involved in the negotiations.
Some of those aircraft and associated support personnel remained temporarily in Pakistan “in anticipation of subsequent rounds of engagement,” the statement continued. Although a second formal round of talks has not yet materialised, senior-level diplomatic exchanges have persisted. Visits by Iran’s foreign minister to Islamabad, for instance, were facilitated through the same existing logistical arrangements, the Foreign Office said. “The Iranian aircraft currently parked in Pakistan arrived during the ceasefire period and bear no linkage whatsoever to any military contingency or preservation arrangement,” the statement added. “Assertions suggesting otherwise are speculative, misleading, and entirely detached from the factual context.”
Pakistan has consistently portrayed itself as an impartial facilitator in the US-Iran crisis. The Foreign Office emphasised that it has provided only routine logistical and administrative support while maintaining “full transparency and regular communication with all relevant parties.” It concluded by reaffirming Islamabad’s commitment “to supporting all sincere efforts aimed at promoting dialogue, reducing tensions, and advancing regional and global peace, stability, and security.”
The CBS report arrives amid reported internal changes at the network that have drawn scrutiny over its Middle East coverage. Last month, The Guardian reported that CBS News’s new leadership under Bari Weiss — who has described herself as a “Zionist fanatic” and a vocal supporter of the Trump administration’s approach to Iran — had ousted a veteran bureau chief amid tensions over how the conflict was being covered. Weiss then installed Shayndi Raice, a former Wall Street Journal editor recently based in Israel, as the network’s new foreign editor.
Sources who spoke to The Guardian described Raice as “much more sympathetic to the Israeli perspective than the Palestinian one.” Colleagues reportedly flagged concerns to the network’s standards team about what they viewed as a pro-Israel slant under her leadership, including an overreliance on Israeli sources and analysts in coverage of the conflict.
The episode unfolded against a backdrop of continued friction between Washington and Tehran. On Monday, Trump told Fox News that he was considering relaunching “Project Freedom” in the Strait of Hormuz as part of broader efforts to pressure Iran. He said the United States would continue to apply pressure until a deal was reached, predicting that Iran would eventually “surrender.” In separate remarks to reporters, Trump called Iran’s response to a US peace proposal a “stupid proposal.” He described the existing ceasefire as “on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a one percent chance of living.’”
The Islamabad Talks, hosted by Pakistan in mid-April, represented the most direct face-to-face engagement between US and Iranian delegations since the ceasefire took hold. Those talks ended without a breakthrough, but both sides have continued indirect contacts through Pakistani channels. Pakistani officials have stressed that their role remains limited to facilitation and have repeatedly denied any partisan alignment.
The Foreign Office’s unusually detailed rebuttal appeared designed not only to counter the specific allegations but to underscore Pakistan’s self-described neutrality at a moment when the fragile truce remains under strain. With Trump signaling renewed military and economic pressure, diplomats in the region are watching closely to see whether the logistical arrangements that once supported talks could become flash points in a larger contest for influence.
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