New Delhi: A day after nominating US President Donald Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistan has issued a sharp condemnation of the United States’ coordinated airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in a strategic balancing act.
Pakistan, Iran’s ally, Sunday called the attacks a violation of international law and warned of dangerous consequences for the region. A statement released by its Foreign Office expressed “grave concern” over the strikes, which followed Israel’s attacks, calling the development “deeply disturbing”, and noting that such “aggression” risked triggering a broader regional conflagration.
🔊PR No.1️⃣8️⃣2️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣
Pakistan Condemns the US Attacks on the Nuclear Facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
🔗⬇️https://t.co/2qpo27WzVQ pic.twitter.com/ugtFomQ5HO
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) June 22, 2025
“These attacks violate all norms of international law, and Iran has the legitimate right to defend itself under the UN Charter,” the statement read, adding that any further escalation would have “severely damaging implications for the region and beyond”.
“All parties must adhere to international law, particularly International Humanitarian Law,” it added.
The Foreign Office urged all actors to pursue “dialogue and diplomacy” in accordance with the UN Charter, calling it the “only viable pathway” to resolving the growing crisis in the Middle East. The statement did not directly address the apparent contradiction between the condemnation of the strikes and its recent endorsement of Trump’s role in regional peace efforts.
On Saturday, the Pakistan government announced that it had “formally decided to recommend” Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his “decisive diplomatic intervention” and “pivotal leadership” during the India-Pakistan conflict last month. The declaration, shared on X, came just two days after Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir for a luncheon at the White House.
Trump has claimed credit for brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan on multiple occasions, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Trump over a phone call earlier this week that at no point during Operation Sindoor was trade or mediation over the India-Pakistan issue was discussed with the US administration.
Several regional powers maintain strong ties with Iran, with Pakistan standing out as the only Islamic nation among them possessing a nuclear arsenal. In the past weeks, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had sought to deepen Tehran’s strategic alignment with Islamabad, particularly in response to Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza.
After Israel’s attack, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had expressed “unwavering solidarity” with Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, condemning what he described as Israel’s “unprovoked aggression”.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, in a recent interview, warned that Israel would “think many times before taking on Pakistan”. But Pakistan’s rhetoric, such as Asif’s warning to Israel, stopped short of promising intervention. Islamabad is trying to maintain strong ties with both Washington and Tehran amid escalating regional conflict, with its Nobel nomination for Trump, while condemning airstrikes to signal solidarity with Iran and the broader Muslim world.
However, Pakistan’s leading national daily Dawn has called the nomination for Trump “farcical”.
“It is a shame there is no office for ‘king of the world’, or Mr Trump might very well have been nominated for that instead, given the Pakistani government’s gratitude for his ‘decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership’ in the recent skirmishes with India. It has also been announced on what appears to be the eve of yet another unjustified and potentially catastrophic American war in the Middle East”, Dawn’s editorial read.
“The intent behind this surprising move lands with all the subtlety of a marching band. The ruling elite here has long understood that flattery, particularly of powerful men with fragile egos, is a very dependable strategy for courting their favour,” it added.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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