PRESS SEC on U.S.-Iran negotiations: The Pakistanis have been incredible mediators and we really appreciate their friendship and efforts to bring this deal to a close.
The President feels it's important to continue to streamline this communication through the Pakistanis.
With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
I warmly welcome the sagacious gesture and extend deepest gratitude to the leadership of both the countries and invite their delegations to Islamabad on Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes.
Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability. We earnestly hope, that the ‘Islamabad Talks’ succeed in achieving sustainable peace and wish to share more good news in coming days!
@realDonaldTrump@JDVance@SecRubio@SteveWitkoff@SEPeaceMissions@drpezeshkian@mb_ghalibaf@araghchi
Going ballistic against the UAE is counterproductive. If you are serious about dignity and sovereignty etc, just audit any small district’s deputy commissioner’s office, examine the resources placed at its disposal, and then assess how much actual public utility it delivers. That alone will explain why Pakistan is so debt-ridden.
Thank you, UAE 🇦🇪, for standing with Pakistan during our difficult times. Your support meant a lot. Today, as we make this loan payment, we do so with deep gratitude and appreciation. Pakistan values this friendship. 📷#PakistanUAE#ThankYouUAE
HEC has approved 149 high-impact research projects worth PKR 1.2 billion under its flagship National Research Programme for Universities (NRPU), a major boost to Pakistan’s research and innovation landscape.
Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the WAR in Middle East, in the interest of peace and stability in region and beyond. Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict.
@realDonaldTrump@SteveWitkoff@araghchi
Many disagree with my view that Iran should now show restraint.
They want escalation. They want a decisive finish.
History warns against this instinct.
In 1982, Iran had pushed Iraq back and held a clear advantage.
That was the moment to consolidate.
Instead, it chose total victory.
The result?
The world aligned against it.
Years of attrition.
Hundreds of thousands dead.
And in the end, a forced compromise.
That is the cost of overreach.
Today, Iran again holds leverage: this time through the Strait of Hormuz.
It has the ability to impose real economic pain.
But leverage is not an invitation to exhaust it.
It is a tool to negotiate from strength.
Right now, the world is not aligned with the U.S.
But if Iran pushes too far, if global economic pain becomes intolerable,
that alignment can change very quickly.
And when it does, the balance shifts.
The lesson is simple:
Victory is not in total domination.
It is in knowing when to stop.
This is the moment for strategic restraint and smart negotiation from a position of strength.
MEMORANDUM TO IRAN
The balance of power has already shifted. Your point has been made.
But prolonging this conflict doesn’t extend your leverage. It exhausts it.
Three moves:
1.Neutralize neighboring friction. Don’t let this war become your neighbors’ burden. This ensures long term security.
2.Restore maritime trade. Open safe passage for all tankers. Keep the oil flowing.
3.De-escalate the Strait. You have demonstrated leverage over Hormuz. Don’t weaponise it further.
By guaranteeing global energy security, you remove the international community’s primary incentive to act against you.
Vengeance is a short-term impulse. Strategic restraint is a long-term projection of strength.
Show the world you are a rational actor capable of ending a crisis on your own terms.
That is the only demonstration of strength that endures beyond the battlefield.
Today, Trump postponed striking Iran’s energy infrastructure out of fear of fluctuations in U.S market prices. Yet for over twenty days, he has watched Gulf societies come under Iranian missile strikes, as Gulf economies incur tens of billions of dollars in damages - without this prompting any change in his decisions.
When the Qatari Minister of Energy warned his American counterpart that striking Iran’s gas fields would inevitably trigger retaliatory strikes against gas fields in the Gulf, he was disregarded. They attacked Iran anyway, leaving the Gulf states to face their fate alone against Iranian missiles.
Striking Iran’s gas fields did not create any strategic advantage, but rather inflicted massive losses upon the Gulf’s energy sector, which ultimately benefits American gas companies.
Trump only speaks about the Strait of Hormuz or the price of oil. In his eyes, the Gulf societies are barely worth a single barrel of crude.
The Geopolitical Paradox of the Gulf War
A crucial misunderstanding of the current Middle East crisis is the belief that the US is "failing" because its military is overextended. And in this sense, both the symbolic and the material military picture for the US is deteriorating. At the same time, energy consolidation is happening, as well. The military depletion and energy consolidation are happening through each other.
The war itself is the instrument.
The US ruling strata’s strategy is fragmenting competitors' energy sovereignty, deepening allied dependency, and extracting monopoly rents from engineered scarcity. (On a broader level, weakening BRICS connectivity, and Iran, itself is another goal without a doubt.)
European Capture is unfolding in real-time now: With Qatari LNG under force majeure and Russian gas banned, Europe is structurally locked into expensive US LNG. The $750 billion energy purchasing agreement Europe recently signed means continued subordination. A deindustrialized Europe, hollowed out and entirely dependent on American energy, is a much more compliant vassal than a prosperous Europe with cheap pipeline gas. The potential rival order of Eurasia through a cooperation between Europe and Russia is out of the way.
The US energy weapon works on allies and adversaries simultaneously, just through different mechanisms: forced dependency for allies (Europe), forced deprivation for adversaries (China, Russia, Iran), and pricing out the Global South.
But how does a state justify degrading its own military and economy to achieve this?
To understand it, you have to separate the US as a territory from the US as a class structure.
Iran’s military resistance, closing the Strait of Hormuz, hitting bases, demonstrating air defense superiority, is precisely what creates the global energy disruption that US LNG and defense monopolies need to lock in these new dependency structures. The US doesn't need to "win" the war in the conventional sense. They just need the chaos to persist long enough to lock in the contracts. (Not to say that Iran capitulating would make anything better in any way.)
The US military as a forward-deployed force is being degraded. But the US rentier class, energy companies, and defense contractors are extracting maximum profit from this temporal window. Stock are surging while Marines take casualties. They are the exact same fact viewed from different positions in the class structure.
The war is the instrument through which the strategy (fragmenting competitors' energy sovereignty, deepening allied dependency, and extracting monopoly rents from engineered scarcity) is executed.
At the end, the temporal window of consolidation enriches the US ruling strata while depleting the state's material capacity, which is itself a form of the self-defeating logic.
"When a President describes sinking ships as 'fun,' when allies are blindsided and friends humiliated, when the reasons for war shift with the news cycle and the global economy buckles—the question is no longer whether the destruction is intended or careless. The question is whether anyone, anywhere, still believes that American power comes with a sense of responsibility attached," writes Bobby Ghosh https://t.co/1ciAIJcyu0
Expanding the Gulf War could be a part of The Plan to push the entire Middle East and certain other neighbours into kinetics against Iran . And once the entire region is engulfed in fire 🔥, US and Israel may quietly extricate , acquiring the role of only adding fuel , sitting on the sidelines.
Unless China makes big diplomatic moves , this war may expand out of control .
Pakistan needs to play wise and cool . Time to endure pressures but abstain from getting inextricably involved. It could be a VITAL DECISION that will shape the future of Pakistan and the region .
Naeem Lodhi