By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met on Monday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a regional summit in Bishkek, pressing the case for diplomatic restraint just hours after the United States and Iran exchanged their first direct strikes in more than a month, reigniting a war that has simmered since February.
The meeting, described by Sharif’s office as “warm and cordial,” came as the two countries traded blows across the Gulf. American forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, after US officials said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units had been observed preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the waterway. It was the first acknowledged American strike on Iran since late July.
Iran responded within hours, firing ballistic missiles at two US-linked military bases in Jordan. Jordanian officials said air defences intercepted eight missiles before they could cause damage or casualties. President Trump, writing on Truth Social, then posted what researchers determined was an artificially generated video purporting to show Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal “blown to smithereens,” a claim an Iranian oil official dismissed as “laughable.” No evidence emerged that any strike on Kharg Island, a vital hub that handles the bulk of Iran’s remaining oil exports, had actually taken place.
Trump told a Fox News correspondent on Monday that the United States would “hit them hard,” while separately declaring Iran a “Failed Nation.” He did not say whether a strike on Kharg had been ordered.
Sharif, who arrived in Bishkek earlier Monday for a three-day visit built around the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of State summit, sat down with Pezeshkian. According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Sharif told the Iranian leader that “restraint and sustained diplomatic engagement” remained essential to achieving lasting peace and stability in the region.
Sharif pointed to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, an interim framework that Pakistan helped broker between Washington and Tehran in June, calling it the “only viable pathway” toward a durable settlement. The memorandum followed months of Pakistani mediation between the two adversaries, whose war began in February. Islamabad hosted the first round of talks in April, shuttled peace proposals between the two sides in the months that followed, and brokered the June memorandum — an accord that unraveled within weeks.
The prime minister also cited a recent visit to Tehran by Pakistan’s military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, calling his “constructive engagements” there an encouraging sign for the broader diplomatic effort, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
For his part, Pezeshkian thanked Pakistan for its “consistent diplomatic efforts for regional peace and security” and spoke of the two nations’ ties, which he described as rooted in “centuries of shared history, culture, and faith.” He called for greater unity among Muslim-majority nations in confronting what he termed contemporary challenges, and reaffirmed Iran’s interest in deepening cooperation with Pakistan across a range of sectors.
Sharif invited Pezeshkian to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience; Pezeshkian, in turn, invited Sharif to a December summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation in Tehran. The meeting was also attended by Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar; a special assistant to the prime minister, Tariq Fatemi; Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch; and, on the Iranian side, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
The bilateral meeting was one stop in a busy schedule for Sharif, who was welcomed at Manas International Airport by Adylbek Kasymaliev, chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Cabinet of Ministers. Pakistan’s commerce minister, Jam Kamal Khan; communications minister, Abdul Aleem Khan; and information minister, Attaullah Tarar, traveled with him, along with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
Leaders from China, Russia, India and Turkiye also gathered in Bishkek for the two-day summit, marking the 25th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a bloc that also includes Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. During the visit, Pakistan is set to assume the organization’s rotating chairmanship for 2026-27, with Islamabad slated to host next year’s leaders’ summit.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Sharif would also attend Monday’s opening ceremony of the World Nomad Games and hold a separate round of bilateral talks Wednesday with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov, covering trade, energy, regional connectivity, education and tourism. The two countries have set a target of raising bilateral trade to $200 million by 2027-28, building on agreements signed when Zhaparov visited Islamabad last December.
Sharif’s trip follows a July visit to Kyrgyzstan by President Asif Ali Zardari — the first by a Pakistani head of state to the country in 21 years — underscoring what officials in Islamabad have described as a deliberate push to deepen ties across Central Asia even as Pakistan continues to position itself as an intermediary in one of the region’s most volatile conflicts.
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