US secretly pushed Pakistan to broker Iran ceasefire, FT reveals
While President Trump publicly threatened to annihilate Iranian civilisation, his administration was quietly leaning on Pakistan to negotiate a back‑channel ceasefire. Worried by soaring oil prices and Iran’s unexpected military resilience, Washington pushed Islamabad to sell Tehran a temporary truce that would reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
A dramatic account by the Financial Times has laid bare the stark gap between Donald Trump’s theatrical threats and his administration’s desperate back‑channel diplomacy. For weeks, as the president warned that “a whole civilisation will die”, the White House was secretly pressuring Pakistan to coax Iran into a ceasefire. The goal was simple: end the fighting and restore traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
Oil Prices and Iranian Resilience Drive the Shift
Trump’s pivot was driven by two uncomfortable realities. First, the war had sent crude prices soaring above $100 a barrel, threatening global recession and American voters’ wallets. Second, Tehran had proved far more resilient than US intelligence had anticipated, withstanding weeks of intensive US‑Israeli strikes that began on 28 February. According to people familiar with the talks, the president had been eager for a ceasefire since at least 21 March, when he first threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
Pakistan’s Pivotal Mediation Role
Washington calculated that a Muslim‑majority neighbour with a neutral stance would be better placed to sell a truce to Tehran. The White House turned to Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who became the linchpin of the back‑channel effort. Munir and his team shuttled messages between Iranian political and military figures and top US officials, including Trump, Vice‑President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. The deal that finally emerged was a two‑week pause in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
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A Victory Lap Built on Sand
The ceasefire was announced less than two hours before Trump’s latest deadline for Tehran to accept a deal or face “the destruction of an entire civilisation”. Yet the administration’s public narrative – that Iran had “begged” for a ceasefire and that the outcome was an unconditional military victory – stands in sharp contrast to the behind‑the‑scenes scramble. As the FT notes, the White House was driven less by triumph than by anxiety over oil prices and a resilient regime that had refused to break. The temporary truce may halt the bombing, but it has not resolved the underlying confrontation.
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