By Rick Noack
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Pakistan’s military is “cautiously optimistic” about its mediation between Iran and the United States, its spokesman said on Friday in his first interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran this week.
Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir — Pakistan's chief mediator in its efforts to de-escalate the now eight-month-old Iran war — has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday alongside Saudi and Turkish officials.
“Why would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course,” spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said when asked whether the trips were a positive sign.
PACT DOES NOT BAR NEW MEMBERS
“The word that we would use is always cautiously optimistic,” added Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations.
There were still "powerful spoilers and detractors," who believed conflict serves them, he added without naming them.
Speaking in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Pakistan's armed forces are headquartered, Chaudhry declined to say what was discussed or whether the United States had backed the trip.
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin joined Munir in Tehran on Monday.
Their two countries signed a joint defence pact with Pakistan on August 7, saying an attack on any signatory will be treated as an attack on all.
The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement has taken on added significance as the Iran war has redrawn regional alliances and raised fears of a broader Middle East conflict.
While the three signatories say the agreement is aimed at collective deterrence and regional security, analysts see its evolution as closely tied to efforts by regional powers to manage the fallout from the Iran-US confrontation.
After Monday’s talks, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said regional security should be ensured by regional countries without foreign intervention.
The wording of the pact does not bar new members, Chaudhry said on Friday when asked whether Iran could join.
“Anyone who has a shared vision of collective deterrence and regional peace, why not? Everyone is most welcome,” he said, adding that it was for the political leadership of the three principal parties to decide.
Asked whether more Pakistani troops were being sent to Saudi Arabia under the agreement, Chaudhry said that would depend on the situation and the decision of both countries’ political leadership.
He said Pakistan was committed to defending Saudi Arabia and the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. "We are not part of the Yemeni conflict, which is an intra-Yemen conflict," he added.
Fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group has been reignited by the Iran conflict, stoking fears of a wider war.
HOME FRONT
On the home front, the federal government suspended the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, led by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on October 11 and detained Chief Minister Sohail Afridi.
The government had accused the provincial administration of failing to tackle militancy. The PTI rejected the allegations and says its government took part in counter-terrorism efforts. PTI leaders called the move a pretext to crush protests.
Asked if there would now be larger military-led campaigns in the province, Chaudhry said that was not how the army conducted counter-terrorism.
"Our counter-terrorism operations are based on what we call IBOs, intelligence-based operations... The tempo of the freedom of action of (those) IBOs will further increase," he said.
Independents backed by Khan’s PTI won the most directly elected seats in the February 2024 election but fell short of a majority. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the only province controlled by Khan’s party.
Khan has been in jail since 2023, and his supporters see the military behind his imprisonment and the dismantlement of the PTI. The army denies involvement in politics.
(Reporting by Rick Noack; Writing by Ariba Shahid; Editing by Andrew Heavens)