As Islamabad prepares for another round of talks between Washington and Tehran, Mehdi Hasan, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Zeteo, laid out an unsparing assessment of Pakistan’s diplomatic positioning in the unfolding US-Iran crisis.
His remarks come at a moment when Iran has signalled hesitation over attending fresh negotiations with US despite the Trump administration pushing for talks to be hosted in Pakistan. A fragile ceasefire hangs by a thread, with both sides accusing each other of violations, and global markets watching closely for disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan has “done a good job” in cultivating closeness with Trump, Hasan told NDTV’s Vishnu Som in an exclusive interview.
“The Pakistanis got very close to Trump and sucked up to Trump. Smart move,” Hasan, founder of Zereo, said. “We saw Shehbaz Sharif at the Board of Peace meeting saying, ‘We’re going to give him another Nobel Peace nomination for last year; no one this year will nominate him.’ They know what buttons to push to get Donald Trump on board.”
The implication, he argued, is that US foreign policy under Trump is less about institutional continuity and more about individual rapport.
“It’s not about shared interests or shared values,” Hasan suggested. “It’s about who flatters him most. In order to have a proper alliance with him, it’s not about shared interests or shared values.
At the centre of this evolving relationship is Asim Munir, recently elevated to the rank of Field Marshal. Hasan spotlighted Munir’s reported private one-on-one meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, describing it as unprecedented for a Pakistani general.
“It’s about whether you suck up to him the most. And the Pakistanis have done a good job of that. Clearly. I think if these negotiations do produce a deal, he will be even closer to Field Marshal Munir who I should remind your viewers, is the first Pakistani general in history, I believe, to have a private 1-to-1 meeting with a United States President in the Oval Office,” Hasan told NDTV.
Despite acknowledging that the location of talks — whether in Islamabad, New Delhi, Muscat, Geneva or Vienna — is ultimately secondary, Hasan dismissed the idea that the conflict can be resolved quickly.
“This idea that you can get a bunch of people in a hotel room or a conference room over a weekend and solve this. That’s absurd,” Hasan said.
To make his case, he invoked the long negotiations behind the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, brokered under Barack Obama. That process took years, involved multiple global powers, and required sustained, detailed engagement between senior officials, including John Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“You cannot just do this deal in a few hours, as JD Vance wants to do. No, but then if it is going to take months or years, then where does this leave the rest of the world?” Hasan asked.
The leadership currently in place, he suggested, is less inclined to compromise than previous administrations, even those considered more pragmatic.
“The idea that they would roll over now… is a nonstarter,” he said.
The Iranian administration has confirmed that Tehran has not yet decided whether to attend the next round of talks, accusing Washington of failing to demonstrate a genuine commitment to diplomacy.
The US has accused Iran of targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran claims the US has escalated tensions through economic and military pressure.