Pakistani government had credited US president with ‘pivotal leadership’ in its ceasefire negotiations with India
Middle East crisis – live updates
Donald Trump’s intervention into the Iran-Israel war, and brokering then announcing a ceasefire, has drawn a heated debate in Pakistan – where the government had formally nominated the US president for the Nobel peace prize as the US military was making its final preparations for a strike that threatened all-out war in the Middle East.
A statement in the early hours of Saturday local time – shortly before US B-2 bombers left the Whiteman air force base in Missouri and headed to Iran – had credited Trump for a “legacy of pragmatic diplomacy” and “pivotal leadership” for ensuring Pakistan’s ceasefire with India in a conflict that had begun with the killing of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April.
A day later that same government was condemning Trump for the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities and what it said was a violation of international law, insisting that diplomacy was the only way to resolve the crisis. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, called the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to express his concerns over the US strike.
