In April 2026, Pakistan helped broker a ceasefire between the United States and Iran, placing Islamabad at the centre of a war it normally watches from a distance. The same Pakistan is also committed to defending Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s principal regional rival, under a mutual defence pact signed only months earlier.
That tension is the starting point for the latest episode of Pulse Check, the subscriber podcast from Quwa. Host Bilal Khan is joined by Dr. Tughral Yamin – a retired Pakistan Army Brigadier General, former associate dean at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), and senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in Islamabad – to work through what Pakistan actually wants from the region.
Dr. Yamin has written six books, with a research focus on United Nations (UN) peacekeeping, and today serves as chief executive of the Saya Vocational Training Institute. He is also a frequent commentator on Pakistan’s regional posture, which made him a natural guest for a conversation about a fast-moving strategic picture.
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A Thesis on Iran’s Regional Ambitions
Bilal Khan opens the episode with a deliberately provocative argument. His view is that Iran is manoeuvring to become the Middle East’s leading power – the actor that sets the terms of regional security rather than sharing them.
The examples he cites are concrete: Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, its studied ambiguity around its nuclear program, and its long-running influence in Lebanon. Given that geography repeatedly pulls Pakistan into Iran’s orbit, Bilal argues that Islamabad can no longer treat the Middle East as a space it engages only when forced to.
His conclusion is that Pakistan should begin to think of itself as a Middle Eastern power in its own right. The purpose would be to balance both Iran and Saudi Arabia, and to ensure that no single state can dominate the region without consulting its neighbours.
Bilal also points to precedent. Pakistan sat inside a regional security framework before 1979 through the Baghdad Pact and the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), alongside Iran and other member states.
In this vein, he floats a more speculative idea: that Pakistan could gradually position itself along India’s future oil and gas routes from the Gulf, building the kind of long-term leverage that India has developed over Pakistan’s upstream water access.
Dr. Yamin’s Counterpoint: Pakistan’s Long Game
Dr. Yamin agrees with much of the framing but pushes back on one part of the premise. In his assessment, Pakistan already has a coherent Middle East policy – and has been drawing on it for decades.
He rates Pakistan’s mediation between Washington and Tehran as ‘par excellence’, describing it as a bold decision taken when few others were willing to step in. Part of the motivation, he argues, was Pakistan’s own security, since a hostile power installed next door in Iran would leave Pakistan exposed, much as the conflicts in Afghanistan did after 1979.
For Dr. Yamin, the deeper point is historical. He notes that Pakistan’s constitution commits the country to good relations with the wider Muslim world, and that successive governments have acted on it.
He recalls the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when Pakistani pilots flew combat missions alongside Syrian and Egyptian forces, and where an airman such as Sattar Alvi shot down an Israeli aircraft. He also points to Pakistan’s standing pledge to defend the holy sites in Mecca and Medina, and its long record of supplying trainers and advisors across the Gulf.
Moreover, he frames the relationship in economic terms. Remittances from the Gulf run to billions of dollars a year and form a critical source of hard currency, which, for Dr. Yamin, is evidence of a relationship Pakistan has managed carefully rather than neglected.
There is also a longer memory at work. Drawing a parallel to the medical mission that Muslims of the subcontinent sent to the Ottomans during the 1912 Balkan Wars – still remembered in Turkey a century later – Dr. Yamin argues that Iran will not soon forget who stood with it during the recent conflict.
The ‘Honest Broker’ and the Saudi Balancing Act
Much of the episode centres on how Pakistan turned a dangerous moment into diplomatic capital. Dr. Yamin argues that both the United States and Iran came to see Pakistan as an ‘honest broker’, which allowed Islamabad to bring the two sides to talks and help secure the ceasefire.
He situates the moment within a warming relationship on two fronts. Ties with Iran had been improving since the visit of former President Ebrahim Raisi, while relations with Washington drew attention when Field Marshal Asim Munir was hosted for a rare lunch at the White House.
For Dr. Yamin, Iran’s reassessment of its partnership with India is part of the same story. He argues that Tehran has grown more cautious about New Delhi, and more inclined to value a dependable partner within its immediate neighbourhood.
That partner role now extends further. Pakistan’s growing defence footprint across the Middle East runs from its Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia, signed in September 2025, to reported interest in Pakistani security guarantees as far as Lebanon and Libya.
Here the balancing act comes into focus. Pakistan is mediating between the United States and Iran while committed to defend Saudi Arabia, and how it holds those positions together is one of the central threads of the conversation.
Where to Listen
The preview of this Pulse Check episode is available now, and the full discussion – along with Quwa’s wider coverage of Pakistani defence, procurement, and regional security – is accessible to Quwa Plus and Quwa Pro subscribers.
Given how quickly Pakistan’s position in the region is shifting, Dr. Yamin’s read on where it goes next is worth hearing in full.
Subscribe to unlock the full episode and the complete Pulse Check archive: Quwa Plus
