Author: Uzma Ehtasham

By Uzma Ehtasham There are moments in global affairs when time seems to stand still. Decisions are postponed, statements are issued, and everything appears, on the surface, to be under control. But the truth is rather less comforting: there are junctures at which delay itself becomes the greatest threat. The present international moment is precisely such a time. If no decision is taken today, what awaits us tomorrow is not merely uncertainty – it will be harsher, costlier, and quite possibly far more dangerous. Islamabad has, almost imperceptibly, become a quiet but decisive hub. The talks taking place there are…

By Uzma Ehtasham The enduring stalemate between Washington and Tehran continues to hold the global economy hostage. No agreement on a permanent ceasefire has been reached, and at the heart of this paralysis lies the unresolved question of Iran’s enriched uranium. Both sides have dug in, their positions hardening into an almost geological intransigence. Iran has now declared, with a clarity that leaves little room for diplomatic wriggling, that under no circumstances will its stockpile of enriched uranium be transferred to the United States. The spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, framed the matter in almost sacred terms: enriched…

By Uzma Ehtasham At last, Pakistan’s persistent diplomatic efforts for peace have yielded a tangible reward. Iran has announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a decision that drew an extraordinary public thank you from President Donald Trump, who took to his social media platform to express gratitude to Pakistan, Iran, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. “Thank you Pakistan, thank you Iran, thank you Field Marshal, thank you Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,” he wrote. In his telling, this is a splendid day for the entire world. Iran, he claimed, has agreed never again to…

By Uzma Ehtasham There is something quietly defiant about a country that decides to build its own defences from its own soil with its own hands. It is not the loud defiance of parades or ultimatums. It is the quieter, more stubborn kind – the kind that happens in laboratories and workshops, in the small hours when no one is watching, in the minds of scientists who have been told for years that they cannot do it. This week, the Pakistan Navy carried out a successful test of an indigenously manufactured anti‑ship missile, striking a target at long range with…

By Uzma Ehtasham There is a particular art to the diplomacy of the anxious. It is the art of the phone call made before the fire reaches the fuel depot. It is the craft of the handshake offered in a capital whose radar systems are already blinking amber. For months, the world has watched the ridge of the Gulf narrow into a knife edge, with the United States and Iran trading threats across a table of broken trust, while Israel’s war on Iranian positions – which began in late February – threatened to pull every loose thread in the region…

By Uzma Ehtasham There is a peculiar alchemy to diplomacy, rarely witnessed in the raw glare of a presidential press conference or the clipped formality of a state communique. It is the art of making the impossible seem merely difficult, of persuading two men poised to immolate each other to instead share a cup of tea. For the better part of a generation, the world has looked at Pakistan and seen only the fractures: the specter of extremism, the rickety economy, the perpetual shadow of military interference in civilian life. We have written its obituary so many times that the…

By Uzma Ehtasham The uneasy silence that followed the latest round of United States-Iran talks in Islamabad has already been shattered. Once again, global peace finds itself hostage to the same old fears: a nuclear threshold crossed, a vital waterway blocked, and two implacable foes trading threats rather than handshakes. Yet to dismiss these negotiations as a failure would be to miss the one slender reed of hope that emerged. That the two sides sat down at all, that they spoke directly and laid out their red lines face to face, represents a small but significant step forward. And at…

By Uzma Ehtasham There is an old saying in the bazaars of Lahore that a good neighbor is one who knows when to stay silent. However, what happens when the neighbor learns not just silence, but the art of the strategic whisper? That, in essence, is the question now haunting the high rises of South Block in New Delhi. For months, the Modi government has operated on a simple premise: that Pakistan, wracked by economic tremors and political spasms, could be rendered a pariah, a shout in a crowded room that everyone had learned to ignore. But a shout is…

By Uzma Ehtasham The talks held in United States of America and Iran in Islamabad have been described by international reporting as a rare and carefully managed moment of direct diplomatic contact between two states whose relationship has long been defined by suspicion, sanctions and periodic confrontation. Stretching over 21 hours, the negotiations did not produce a final agreement, but diplomats involved and observers close to the process suggest that the outcome should not be measured only in terms of what was signed, but also in the fact that the talks happened at all, and that they did not collapse…

By Uzma Ehtasham The diplomatic stage has shifted, and in its latest act, Washington finds itself offering unexpected praise to an unlikely partner. President Donald Trump has gone out of his way to commend Pakistan’s leadership – specifically Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir – for their role in hosting the recent United States-Iran talks in Islamabad. According to Trump, these negotiations, which stretched nearly twenty hours, were made possible only through the effective stewardship of Pakistan’s civilian and military establishment. He described the country’s leadership as extraordinary, noting with a touch of theatrical gratitude that Pakistani…