Field Marshal Munir involved in personal deals amid mediation between US, Iran: Report

Pakistan’s military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has reportedly been involved in personal agreements during ongoing diplomatic talks, including a contentious deal concerning New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. This came as Pakistan aims to act as a peace mediator between Iran and the United States.

According to a report in The Economic Times, though Pakistan claimed credit for mediation, sources indicated that Egypt had played a key role in securing the recent ceasefire. Cairo’s regional influence and backchannel diplomacy were important factors in these developments.

The US-Pakistan agreement to jointly redevelop the Roosevelt Hotel, owned by Pakistan International Airlines, has attracted scrutiny. Signed in February during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s US visit for the Trump-led Board of Peace meeting, the project details remained largely undisclosed.

Since Operation Sindoor began last year, Munir has worked on establishing new media platforms and think tanks in Islamabad. These initiatives aimed to create globally standard news channels and research organisations but have yet to yield concrete results, say analysts.

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Properties owned by Pakistani leaders in the United Arab Emirates have also come under focus amid Abu Dhabi’s demand for Pakistan to repay a $3 billion loan, the report added. This financial pressure coincided with Islamabad’s delayed military support to Riyadh during missile attacks from Tehran, despite a defence pact signed last year.

Meanwhile, a report in Reuters that quoted sources stated that mediation efforts to halt the war in Iran were close to collapse when Pakistan launched an overnight diplomatic initiative to secure a temporary ceasefire and facilitate direct talks between Washington and Tehran.

The attempt nearly failed after an Iranian strike on a Saudi petrochemical facility sparked anger in Riyadh and threatened to undo weeks of back-channel diplomacy. Pakistani officials made a last-minute effort to relay messages between Tehran and Washington, following Trump's warning that continued fighting could destroy "a whole civilisation”.

Pakistan's efforts involved direct communication with senior officials on all sides, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, and senior Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Vahidi.