00:00Pakistan Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif has urged all parties to exercise restraint
00:05and respect the ceasefire. How concerned are mediators that Israel's actions could undermine
00:13this fragile truce between the US and Iran that Pakistan have worked so hard to mediate?
00:20Definitely. From a Pakistani perspective, they want this ceasefire to hold. They want
00:26an atmosphere in the region where US and Iran's negotiations can proceed in Islamabad and where
00:35both sides can actually build upon this engagement in the backdrop of a regional calm. But I guess
00:46that the ceasefire violations, particularly from the Israeli side in the Lebanon theater,
00:51it, from a Pakistani understanding, it basically torpedoes, is an attempt, is considered an attempt
00:58to torpedo the ceasefire and to this arrangement, which Pakistan and its leadership has very tirelessly,
01:05you can say, achieved by convincing the Iranians and also by getting on board the US. So I think that
01:14they will try their good offices now with the US president. We know that the Pakistani military
01:19chief and President Donald Trump, they have a direct line. And I think that he will try to convince
01:25President Donald Trump to ask the Israelis to hold back on this and to give these negotiations a chance,
01:32because actually right now the negotiations have not started. So, OK, once the two parties sit together
01:38and there is an understanding that there are significant differences that cannot be abridged,
01:43then perhaps the stakeholders can take a different route. But for now, I think that the focus will be
01:51keep the environment calm, keep all theatres calm, and let's focus and let's try to move towards the
01:59negotiations phase. And these Israeli actions and, of course, the Iranian actions, they kind of
02:06are a nuisance for going towards this next phase.
Comments