Pakistan quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to use its airbases
- CBS News says Pakistan let Iranian military aircraft shelter at Pakistani airbases during the U.S.-Iran crisis, even while Islamabad pitched itself as a mediator. - The most concrete detail is Nur Khan Air Base near Rawalpindi, where U.S. officials say Iran moved multiple military aircraft after strikes began. - That matters because it turns Pakistan’s balancing act into a credibility problem in Washington and an economic problem at home.
Pakistan’s problem here is not just what it may have done. It’s that the alleged move cuts directly against the role it was publicly trying to play. While Islamabad was presenting itself as a go-between in the U.S.-Iran crisis, U.S. officials told CBS News that Pakistan also let Iranian military aircraft park on its airfields, potentially keeping them out of range of American strikes. That turns a familiar bit of Pakistani foreign policy — hedging between rivals — into something sharper and riskier. ### What is the actual allegation? The core claim is simple. Iranian military aircraft were quietly moved onto Pakistani bases during the recent U.S.-Iran showdown, and Pakistan allowed it. The reporting points most clearly to Nur Khan Air Base near Rawalpindi, a highly sensitive Pakistani military facility. Other follow-up coverage says the aircraft included military and surveillance planes, though the load-bearing fact is the sheltering itself. (cbsnews.com) ### Why would Iran do that? Because aircraft on the ground are vulnerable. If Tehran believed more U.S. strikes were possible, dispersing planes across borders would complicate targeting and lower the risk of losing valuable assets in one hit. Basically, it is the aviation version of not keeping all your money in one drawer. Pakistan’s territory offered both proximity and political ambiguity — close enough to matter, but wrapped in the cover of a country also talking to Washington. (cbsnews.com) ### Why is Pakistan’s role such a big deal? Because mediation only works if both sides think you are at least trying to stay neutral. Pakistan has long balanced ties with the U.S., China, Gulf states, and Iran. But letting one side’s military aircraft use your bases is not neutral behavior in the ordinary sense of the word. Even if Islamabad saw it as temporary deconfliction rather than alliance, the optics in Washington are rough. (cbsnews.com) ### Was Pakistan also lobbying Washington? Yes — heavily, at least in a separate but revealing episode. Filings reviewed by ANI say Pakistan logged nearly 60 interactions with U.S. lawmakers, aides, Treasury-linked contacts, national security figures, and journalists between May 6 and May 9, 2025. That reporting is tied to India-Pakistan ceasefire politics, not the Iran story directly, but it reinforces the same pattern: Islamabad works every channel at once, publicly and privately. (cbsnews.com) ### Why does that pattern matter now? Because this is what Pakistani statecraft often looks like under pressure — keep talking to everybody, commit fully to nobody, and preserve room to maneuver. That can work for a while. But the catch is that hedging looks smart only until the different audiences compare notes. Once U.S. officials think Pakistan was mediating with one hand and helping Iran with the other, the maneuver stops looking subtle and starts looking duplicitous. (aninews.in) That is the real danger here. ### Is there already a cost at home? There is at least an economic backdrop that makes the timing worse. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended Pakistan’s nationwide austerity measures to June 13 because regional conflict and fuel-market stress were still hitting the economy. The measures include fuel-saving steps and broader belt-tightening. So even if the airbase story is mainly about diplomacy, it lands in a country already paying for Middle East instability through energy pressure and fiscal strain. (cbsnews.com) ### What happens next? The immediate question is whether this stays a media revelation or turns into a Washington policy issue. Some U.S. political voices are already questioning Pakistan’s mediator role. If more officials go on the record, or if satellite imagery or additional documentation appears, Islamabad could face demands for an explanation from the same capital it was trying to influence. (brecorder.com) ### Bottom line This story is really about credibility. Pakistan may think it was buying flexibility in a dangerous moment. But flexibility gets expensive when both sides realize you sold each of them a different version of your role. (indiatvnews.com)
