Washington, April 8 Concerned about rising oil prices and surprised by a resilient Iranian regime, the White House urged Pakistan to broker a temporary ceasefire with Tehran, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
For weeks, the Trump administration had been pressuring Islamabad to convince the Iranians to agree to a pause in fighting, which would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to the newspaper, quoting "people familiar with the talks."
"Pakistan's crucial role, as a Muslim-majority neighbor and intermediary, was to sell the idea to Tehran," the report said.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, as proposed by Pakistan.
Trump, concerned about rising oil prices and surprised by a resilient Iranian regime, was eager for a ceasefire, at least since his first threat on March 21 to "obliterate" Iran's power plants, according to five people familiar with the Pakistan-led back channel, the Times reported.
The report said that Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and other senior Pakistani officials began passing messages between Iranian political and military figures and the White House soon after Trump issued his first ultimatum to open the strait.
The FT report said that Munir embarked on a flurry of calls to top US officials, including Trump, Vice President J D Vance, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, as Trump ratcheted up pressure to "obliterate" Iran and set April 7 as the deadline.
"The US and Pakistan believed that Iran was more likely to accept the US-backed offer if it was delivered by a Muslim-majority neighbor state that had emphasized its neutrality throughout the conflict," the report said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made the two-week proposal public on social media after Munir spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Sharif, who framed the deal as Pakistan's initiative, mistakenly included a subject line at the top of his post: "draft — Pakistan’s PM message on X", it said.