By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The UN Secretary-General António Guterres will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday for a three-day visit that puts Islamabad’s role as the main broker between Washington and Tehran at the centre of his final months in office.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Monday that Guterres would be in the country from 6 to 8 October. He will meet the president, Asif Ali Zardari; the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif; the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar; and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the chief of defence forces and army chief.
“The visit of the UN Secretary-General will offer an important opportunity to reiterate Pakistan’s longstanding cooperation with the United Nations, and to exchange views on regional and international developments,” the Foreign Office said.
The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported that the talks would cover Pakistan’s part in supporting negotiations between the US and Iran. The UN spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, credited Islamabad with “using its diplomacy and mediation to bring parties together when dialogue is most needed”.
The war began in late February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran. It has disrupted energy supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for global oil and gas trade. Ceasefires agreed in April and June failed to end the fighting.
Pakistan and Qatar helped mediate the June agreement, which was meant to halt hostilities and restore maritime traffic, but fighting resumed in July. Mr Guterres has backed Pakistan’s mediation and urged renewed dialogue. His office says he remains in close contact with Pakistani leaders over efforts to end the conflict.
The diplomacy has not stalled, but it remains difficult. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said the strait would stay closed until Washington met seven Iranian conditions drawn from the Islamabad memorandum, according to Iranian media. He spoke days after Tehran received a US reply to its latest proposal.
Last week, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said indirect talks with the US had become “more serious” and that the focus was solely on Hormuz. He spoke after meeting Pakistani and Qatari mediators in New York. US and Iranian officials engaged separately with mediators in late September.
Islamabad continues to promote the June agreement as a framework for further negotiations despite its breakdown.
Beyond the political meetings, Guterres will visit the headquarters of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, which monitors the ceasefire along the Line of Control dividing disputed Kashmir. He will also attend a briefing at the National Disaster Management Authority, where Pakistan’s disaster preparedness and early warning systems will be showcased.
The Foreign Office said the visit would highlight Pakistan’s “efforts towards strengthening multilateralism and international peace and security”. It also acknowledged Guterres’s leadership during his time as UN head. His 10-year tenure ends on 31 December.
Dar said the secretary-general accepted an invitation to visit when the two met earlier this autumn. Sharif also met Guterres on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September, where they discussed the situation in the Middle East. Mr Guterres commended Pakistan’s voice at the UN and its sacrifices in countering terrorism.
He last visited Pakistan in 2022, after devastating monsoon floods. His first visit as secretary-general was in February 2020, about three years after he took up the post.
Two of the six candidates vying to succeed him have also visited Pakistan in recent months and met Sharif. María Fernanda Espinosa visited in July and Olara Otunnu in September, and both praised Pakistan’s role in promoting peace.
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