Pakistan allegedly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park at its airbases to shield them from potential American airstrikes despite positioning itself as a mediator in the ongoing US-Iran conflict, according to a report by CBS News citing US officials.The report has triggered sharp reactions in Washington, with senior US lawmakers questioning Islamabad’s neutrality in efforts to broker peace between Tehran and Washington after the war erupted on February 28 and was paused under a ceasefire announced on April 8.According to CBS News, Iran moved “multiple aircraft” to Pakistan’s Nur Khan Air Base shortly after US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire. The aircraft reportedly included an Iranian Air Force RC-130 reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering plane.Reacting to the report, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for a reassessment of Pakistan’s diplomatic role in the crisis.“If this reporting is accurate, it would require a complete reevaluation of the role Pakistan is playing as mediator between Iran, the United States and other parties,” Graham said in a post on X.“Given some of the prior statements by Pakistani defense officials towards Israel, I would not be shocked if this were true,” he added.A senior Pakistani official rejected the allegations involving Nur Khan Air Base and told CBS News that such claims were implausible because the facility is located in a densely populated area.“Nur Khan base is right in the heart of (the) city, a large fleet of aircraft parked there can’t be hidden from (the) public eye,” the official said.The report further claimed that Iran moved civilian aircraft to neighbouring Afghanistan during the conflict. An Afghan civil aviation official told CBS News that an Iranian aircraft belonging to Mahan Air landed in Kabul shortly before the war began and remained there after Iranian airspace was shut.The same aircraft was later shifted to Herat near the Iranian border after Pakistan launched attacks on Afghanistan, Afghan officials told CBS News. They added that the Mahan Air plane was the only Iranian aircraft present in the country.However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied reports of Iranian aircraft being stationed in Afghanistan.“No, that’s not true and Iran doesn’t need to do that,” Mujahid told CBS News.The controversy has emerged as Pakistan attempts to balance ties with both Washington and Tehran while maintaining close strategic and military cooperation with China. According to a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute study cited in the CBS report, China supplied nearly 80 percent of Pakistan’s major arms imports between 2020 and 2024.The report said Islamabad has tried to position itself as a “stabilizing intermediary” while avoiding moves that could alienate either Iran or China, Tehran’s closest international ally.Meanwhile, tensions between the US and Iran remained high despite the ceasefire. Iranian officials reiterated that uranium enrichment and nuclear technology were non-negotiable in any future talks with Washington.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei described Tehran’s latest proposal to end the war as “reasonable”.But Trump dismissed the Iranian response during remarks from the Oval Office.“After reading that piece of garbage they sent us, I didn’t even finish reading it. They (Iran) are on life support. The ceasefire is on massive life support,” Trump said.
