The chatter in Delhi is unmistakable: as Pakistan positions itself as an intermediary in the US-Iran crisis, is India being sidelined?
Islamabad has moved with unusual agility, casting itself as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran.
Last week, it reportedly relayed a 15-point US peace plan to Iran and offered to host talks – an offer Tehran rejected. This week, Pakistan took the lead again, with its foreign minister flying to Beijing to seek Chinese backing for a five-point peace plan to end the conflict.
For India, Pakistan’s larger neighbour and arch rival, the optics are awkward. The unease is sharpened by a more uneven phase in India’s ties with the US, even as Pakistan appears to be rebuilding channels with President Donald Trump.
That, in turn, has sparked a familiar divide within India’s strategic community.
How Pakistan won over Trump to become an unlikely mediator ?
Some opposition parties and analysts argue that Delhi, with its own cross-cutting ties in the region, should at least have explored a mediatory role – lest it appear absent at a moment of geopolitical flux.
The opposition Congress party has attacked the government, calling it an “embarrassment” for Indian diplomacy after reports of Pakistan being tapped as a mediator..
“By being more agile and aggressive in the ‘war of narratives’, Pakistan has often outmanoeuvred India diplomatically,” strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney wrote on X. Others see little value in such visibility for its own sake, cautioning that mediation without leverage or invitation can backfire. They believe India’s interests are better served by quiet diplomacy and strategic distance. That view finds echo in the government. In an all-party meeting last week, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reportedly dismissed Pakistan’s role as “dalali” (brokerage), noting it has played such a part since 1981, including in US-Taliban talks.
“We don’t run around asking countries what kind of brokerage we can do,” he is reported to have said.
But for some analysts, the intensity of the debate in Delhi says as much about perception as policy.
Source: bbc.com/news/articles
