US President Donald Trump said that Washington agreed to a ceasefire with Iran as a “favour” to Pakistan.Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning from China, Trump said the US had accepted the truce at Pakistan’s request and had no plans, for now, to resume bombing Iran.”We did the ceasefire as a request from another nation. I would have really benefited from it, but we did it as a favour to Pakistan. They are terrific people, the Field Marshal and the Prime Minister,” Trump said.The comment comes at a sensitive moment for Pakistan, which has sought to position itself as a regional mediator in the US-Iran crisis but has simultaneously faced questions over its neutrality after reports and satellite imagery suggested Iranian military aircraft had landed at Pakistani air bases during the height of the conflict.The reports fuelled speculation that Pakistan may have quietly offered logistical refuge to Iranian assets even as it publicly presented itself as a neutral facilitator of talks. That has fed into a familiar pattern critics often associate with Pakistan’s foreign policy, attempting to play multiple sides at once, only to find its credibility questioned when events on the ground suggest otherwise.The US-Israel conflict with Iran began on February 28 and was paused on April 8 under a ceasefire reportedly facilitated by Pakistan. On April 11-12, US Vice President JD Vance led a delegation to Islamabad for direct talks with Iranian officials, marking an unusual diplomatic opening.Trump also reiterated that the US would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and said Tehran was under pressure to surrender its stockpile of enriched uranium in exchange for sanctions relief.He further noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping supported keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, underscoring how the crisis has drawn in all major regional and global powers.
