Pakistan let Iran park warplanes on its airfields

Pakistan allowed Iranian military aircraft, including an RC-130, to park at Nur Khan Airbase near Rawalpindi days after the April ceasefire, according to CBS News citing U.S. officials.cbsnews
The revelation emerged as Pakistan forwarded Iran’s counterproposal to Washington, which Trump rejected as “totally unacceptable,” saying the ceasefire was on “life support.”reuters
The dual role highlights Pakistan’s balancing act between its mediation credentials and ties to China, which supplied about 80% of its major arms imports from 2020 to 2024.cbsnews

Pakistan Sheltered Iranian Warplanes While Acting as US-Iran Mediator

Pakistan quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park at its airfields during the US-Iran conflict, even as Islamabad positioned itself as the central diplomatic broker between Washington and Tehran, CBS News reported on Monday, citing US officials with knowledge of the matter.cbsnews

The revelation complicates the image Pakistan has cultivated as a neutral intermediary in a war now in its tenth week, raising questions about how Islamabad balanced competing loyalties during one of the most volatile periods in the broader Middle East conflict.

Aircraft at Nur Khan Base

According to US officials who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, Tehran sent multiple aircraft to Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan — a strategically important military installation just outside the garrison city of Rawalpindi — days after President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire with Iran in early April. Among the military hardware was an Iranian Air Force RC-130, a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering variant of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules tactical transport aircraft.moneycontrol

Iran also reportedly sent civilian aircraft to neighboring Afghanistan, though it remained unclear whether military aircraft were among those flights. A senior Pakistani official rejected the claims, telling CBS News that “Nur Khan base is right in the heart of the city, a large fleet of aircrafts parked there can’t be hidden from the public eye”.cbsnews

The Mediation Track

The aircraft movements unfolded against the backdrop of Pakistan’s most prominent diplomatic role in decades. Pakistan helped broker the April 8 ceasefire between the United States and Iran, and has since been shuttling proposals between the two sides aimed at a temporary memorandum of understanding to halt fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.nytimes

On Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that Field Marshal Asim Munir had informed him Pakistan received Iran’s formal response to a 14-point US peace proposal. Islamabad then forwarded the response to Washington. Iran’s counteroffer included demands for war reparations, sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of sanctions, and the release of frozen assets. Trump swiftly rejected the proposal on social media as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE”.cnbc

A Delicate Balancing Act

The dual role underscores the tightrope Pakistan walks between its deepening ties with China — which supplied about 80 percent of Pakistan’s major arms imports between 2020 and 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute — and its desire to maintain credibility with Washington. China, Iran’s most powerful international backer, has publicly celebrated Pakistan’s mediation efforts.moneycontrol

On Monday, Trump said the ceasefire was on “massive life support,” telling reporters it had “approximately a one per cent chance of living”. Small-scale clashes continued around the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, with the United Arab Emirates reporting fresh Iranian drone strikes on its territory, according to Reuters.dawn