U.S. President cites Pakistan’s Field Marshal as reason to stick with Islamabad venue; conflicting signals leave timeline fluid ISLAMABAD — Just two days after marathon negotiations halted without a deal, the United States and Iran are circling back toward the diplomatic table, with President Donald Trump suggesting that a second round of Islamabad Talks could unfold in Pakistan “over the next two days.” Image credits: Bloomberg The overture, delivered in a telephone intervie

The United States and Iran have opened direct negotiations in the Pakistani capital, with both sides moving into an expert-level phase of discussions that is aimed at ending a six-week war that has disrupted global energy markets and claimed thousands of lives. The landmark Islamabad Talks represent the most significant face-to-face diplomacy between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Image credits: AFP Islamabad Talks Continue Amid Tight Security The US del

The ceasefire between the United States and Iran did not happen because either side suddenly trusted the other, but because both sides ran out of room to escalate without catastrophic cost. A mediator from outside the usual circle of conventional mediation hubs stepped in when traditional actors had already failed. Image credits: Alena Vavrdova To understand why this ceasefire matters, and whether it will hold, one must first see the war through Iranian eyes. Tehran does not

The ceasefire between the United States and Iran enters its third day on April 11, when formal talks begin in Islamabad. What started as a two-week pause in hostilities is now a test of whether temporary restraint can become a permanent resolution. Image credits: AFP The Islamabad accords negotiations represent more than a bilateral meeting. They are a proving ground for a new model of conflict mediation, one where traditional Western capitals no longer hold a monopoly on th

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that Israel would open direct negotiations with Lebanon. The goal, he said, is to disarm Hezbollah and establish peaceful relations between the two countries. The announcement came after President Donald Trump asked Netanyahu in a phone call to scale back Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Image credits: AFP / Getty Images Hours later, Netanyahu clarified that there is no ceasefire in Lebanon. Israeli warplanes continued to str

Late Tuesday, with less than 90 minutes before the United States’ self-imposed deadline to escalate strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump announced a temporary ceasefire. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed the agreement hours later. This pause appears narrow and fragile, yet significant. Image Credits: Getty Images The temporary truce is the result of weeks of painstaking, behind-the-scenes diplomacy, orchestrated by a country that rarely claims the center st

For three decades after the Cold War, conflict resolution rested on a fragile but functional assumption: that a single superpower , or a small concert of allied states, could set the terms for ceasefires, peacekeeping mandates, and post-conflict reconstruction. That era has ended, and its demise is visible in paralyzed security bodies, the proliferation of proxy wars, and the normalization of economic warfare as a tool of statecraft, a challenge that Islamabad Accords aim to

For decades, the Middle East's most consequential conflicts have not been fought between armies in uniform on clearly demarcated borders. Instead, they have been waged indirectly, through armed groups, economic blockades, cyber campaigns, and political assassinations carried out by non-state proxies. These proxy wars have shaped the region's borders, toppled governments, and determined the fate of millions. Yet as the costs of indirect warfare have mounted, a parallel diploma

A financial crash in one country triggers a banking crisis on another continent. A respiratory virus in a single city becomes a global pandemic within weeks. A regional war disrupts grain shipments, and food prices rise in countries thousands of miles away. The 21st century has revealed a hard truth: no crisis stays local for long. Yet the international institutions built to manage these interdependencies, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade