Pakistani general visits Tehran as US-Iran tensions rise

General Asim Munir, Pakistan's chief of army staff, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening for talks with Iranian officials, as diplomatic efforts to head off a new round of fighting between Iran and the US and Israel gather pace.

According to Iran's IRNA news agency, Munir was accompanied by Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and was expected to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi first. It is Munir's fifth visit to Iran since the April ceasefire between Tehran and Washington, which Islamabad helped broker.

The trip comes a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks in Tehran, and two weeks after Pakistan and its allies agreed to speed up the deployment of forces to Saudi Arabia – a country that has absorbed repeated attacks from Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.

Lavrov's visit on Monday was his first to Tehran since the US-Israeli war against Iran began in February. The Russian foreign minister met Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian; discussions covered the fighting, the Strait of Hormuz and efforts to end the hostilities.

"The timing of Munir's visit, right after Lavrov's presence in Tehran, shows Iran wants to keep several diplomatic channels open at once rather than relying on a single mediator," Tehran-based foreign policy expert Seyed Mojtaba Jalazadeh told Al Jazeera.

Yet Munir's visit also comes as some experts warn of growing signs that US President Donald Trump may be preparing to return to hostilities with Iran. On September 26, Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to end the fighting. Since then, the US has deployed an additional aircraft carrier to the Middle East, due to arrive in late November. Trump also endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the October 27 election, citing the shared goal of striking Iran, and said that if Netanyahu were not re-elected, the US would have to attack Iran itself.

Analysts say these developments make diplomatic efforts to avert a military escalation all the more urgent. In recent weeks, Qatar has played a key role in shuttling proposals between Washington and Tehran. Andreas Krieg, an associate professor of security studies at King's College London, said Qatar increasingly provides the "diplomatic machinery" behind the talks, but Doha still values Islamabad's access to both Washington and Tehran.

"Pakistan brings political access, particularly through General Asim Munir, while Qatar does most of the detailed negotiation," Krieg said.

The Islamabad Memorandum

Pakistan has mediated between Washington and Tehran since the US and Israel began air strikes on Iran on February 28. Islamabad brokered the April 8 ceasefire and days later hosted the highest-level direct contact between the US and Iran since 1979.

In June, the two sides agreed a 14-point memorandum. Under the deal, the US was to lift its naval blockade within 30 days, the Strait of Hormuz was to reopen, and about $24bn of frozen Iranian assets were to be released in stages over 60 days of further talks, including negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.

That phase expired in mid-August without either side agreeing to an extension. Iran says the US did not honour its commitments and has kept the Strait of Hormuz closed, demanding that Washington lift the blockade first.

Pakistan's foreign ministry continues to cite the deal and its usefulness. Spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said at an October 9 briefing: "The Islamabad Memorandum is in force, and some points under discussion are entirely consistent with it." Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on October 2 that Iran's seven-day plan was drawn from the memorandum.

Analysts, however, disagree on whether the deal can still serve as a basis for talks. Umer Karim, a researcher at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, argued the agreement is "done on both sides and probably needs a new mechanism to start negotiations". Krieg said the memorandum is "politically alive" but "operationally dead", because "the circumstances in which it was signed have fundamentally changed".

By contrast, Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, argued the deal remains usable: "The Islamabad Memorandum remains usable, even if the political and security environment has deteriorated. It is still the minimum standard Washington and Tehran agreed to, and neither side has a clear alternative framework for addressing maritime access, sanctions relief and nuclear talks."

Pakistan's commitment to Saudi Arabia

Meanwhile, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7 – the second defence pact between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, after the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed in September 2025.

At an emergency meeting in Riyadh on October 5, the three countries agreed to accelerate the deployment of forces and capabilities under the agreement. Within days, Houthi missiles and drones had repeatedly struck Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, along with targets in Abha, Yanbu and Shaybah.

Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, spokesperson for Pakistan's military, spoke to Independent Arabia on October 18 about the defence agreement and the importance of protecting the holy sites of Mecca and Medina: "The security of Harmain Sharifain is paramount. This is non-negotiable." He declined to give details, citing operational security, and said Pakistan wants to end the conflict through negotiation. "If negotiations fail to produce a result and it turns into a military conflict, then this collective deterrence mechanism, the collective deterrence tool of the Mecca Alliance, will certainly be applied, just as it is being applied," he said.

At the October 9 briefing, asked whether Pakistani forces in Saudi Arabia would fight the Houthis, foreign ministry spokesperson Khan said no: "These forces will not cross into Yemen to attack the Houthis."

On Monday, a day before arriving in Tehran, Munir met Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Rajeh Tami Albugamy. A statement said the two sides expressed satisfaction at progress under the agreement but did not mention the Houthis or Iran.

Tehran's public response to the agreement has been largely guarded. On October 11, Araghchi told his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, that Tehran was ready to support "every possible avenue" to start dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, according to IRNA. Saudi state media said the two sides discussed only "the recent escalation of violence in the region".

After meeting Iranian leaders in New York last month, Dar said they had told him Iran was not involved with the Houthis and suggested engaging the group politically rather than militarily.

But Krieg argued Pakistan's two roles are increasingly hard to reconcile: "Pakistan remains an important mediator, but its credibility as a neutral actor is increasingly affected by its security commitments to Saudi Arabia." Jalazadeh said Tehran's concerns are narrower: "Iran does not necessarily see stronger Pakistan-Saudi defence cooperation as a direct threat, but sees it as a complicating and constraining factor."

Mixed signals from Washington

Pakistan is not the only party under competing pressure – or sending apparently contradictory signals. In Washington, Trump pledged not to attack Iran before the US midterm elections. "We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections taking place in the US on November 3," he wrote on Truth Social on October 8, while saying the US was having productive discussions with Iran. The naval blockade remains in place.

Ten days later, however, Trump endorsed Netanyahu: "If Israel has the wrong leader, meaning anyone other than Bibi, the US will have to do it ourselves, and I don't intend to do that." On Monday, according to Axios, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met Netanyahu at the Ovda air base in southern Israel during an unannounced visit; the outlet said the trip came as the US and Israel discussed the possibility of resuming major military campaigns against Iran.

"Strike threats, combined with the blockade and indirect talks, erode Iran's confidence in Washington's intentions and make stronger security guarantees one of the central issues in any potential deal," Jalazadeh said.

Faisal argued that the timing of the two votes, a week apart, makes it hard for either side to offer major concessions and raises the risk of escalation. Krieg said the elections are among the strongest constraints on another major war, but warned the risk could rise once they are over: "The immediate risk is Iran overreading its hand. A major attack causing American casualties could override the entire electoral calculus."