Trump’s support has splintered as a result of GOP hawks’ concerns about potential US airstrikes against Iran. Key MAGA allies warn that war could derail Trump’s domestic goals, while some Republicans support regime change and military action. Trump claims he will make a decision on Iranian actions in two weeks.
Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief of Pakistan, and United States President Donald Trump had an unprecedented one-on-one meeting at the White House, where the two leaders spoke for more than two hours, according to the Pakistani military.
The meeting, originally scheduled for an hour, was held in the Cabinet Room over lunch and then continued in the Oval Office, according to a statement released on Thursday by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
After a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May, Munir expressed “deep appreciation” for Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire, according to the ISPR. Trump praised Pakistan’s efforts to combat “terrorism,” according to the ISPR.
Trump spoke to reporters briefly after his discussions with Munir, but the White House did not release a statement regarding the meeting, which was held behind closed doors and without the use of photos for the media. He thanked the army chief and expressed his gratitude to him.
Trump also mentioned the ongoing military conflict between Israel and Iran, which the US president has suggested his country might join, amid the cheers and promises of a sharp uptick in relations after years of tension between Washington and Islamabad.
Trump claimed that the Pakistanis “know Iran very well, better than most people,” and that they are “not happy” with it.
According to analysts, Pakistan’s comment underscored how two crucial challenges will face Pakistan as they attempt to reestablish relations with the US. They predicted that Pakistan will have to find a diplomatic balance between Iran and the current diplomatic conflict with Israel. Pakistan might be drawn in conflicting directions by Islamabad’s close ties to China.
Munir spoke to Trump about “economic development, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies,” according to the ISPR.
However, Islamabad acknowledged that the two leaders had “detailed discussions” about the rising tensions between Iran and Israel, with both Trump and Munir stressing the need for a peaceful resolution.
Lieutenant General Asim Malik, who also oversees Pakistan’s top intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was present for Munir.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the president’s top Middle Eastern negotiator, joined Trump on the American side.
The lack of a media presence at the lunch, according to Marvin Weinbaum, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), could be interpreted as implying that “none of the parties wanted photo opportunities,” according to Weinbaum.
According to Weinbaum, neither party likely wanted to reveal much about “what was discussed,” but according to Weinbaum, the US may have wanted to know about Pakistan’s influence in the current situation in Iran.
Nearly three dozen figures from think tanks, policy institutions, and diplomatic circles were present at a dinner hosted by the Pakistani embassy later on Wednesday evening. Al Jazeera spoke with a number of participants who had requested anonymity to speak about Munir’s remarks at the dinner.
One participant claimed Munir’s conversation with Trump was “fantastic and could not have gone any better,” but he claimed he had not provided any specifics about it.
According to this person, Munir claimed that relations between Pakistan and the previous President Joe Biden administration had historically been “among the worst.”
Another attendee continued to tell Al Jazeera that Munir claimed that Pakistan believes that “every conflict can be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.” Munir also stated that the US “knows what it needs to do regarding Iran.”
According to experts, the meeting is a significant boost for Pakistan’s efforts to strengthen ties with the US at the moment.
Since 1947, Pakistan has been a close US ally. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the US invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, they both worked closely together there.
Despite the US providing more than $30 billion in aid to Pakistan over the past 20 years, it has consistently accused Islamabad of being a “duplicity” and a lacked trust in its security partners.
Pakistan has countered that Washington is constantly making demands of it “do more” without fully recognising the losses and instability that regional violence has caused Pakistan.
Munir’s visit, according to Elizabeth Threlkeld, director of the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, represents a “significant upswing” in US-Pakistan ties under the Trump administration.
Field Marshal Munir’s visit has helped to strengthen a relationship built during the recent crisis, she told Al Jazeera, “Given President Trump’s central role in shaping foreign policy and his preference for personal relationships.”
Although the meeting was significant, security policy expert Sahar Khan said, “the two countries are now friends.” It does, however, indicate a “thaw in the relationship.”
She continued, “Pakistan should consider striking a deal with Trump to prevent unrealistic demands regarding regional issues,” despite his unpredictable nature.
Munir’s advice to the Trump administration is to take the time to understand Pakistan and stop judging it from the perspectives of India, China, or Afghanistan, she said.
However, it won’t be simple to make that message stick, according to experts.
Pakistan’s most important trading partner, China, continues to have strong economic, strategic, and military ties. Beijing’s rise as a global superpower has also become Washington’s principal rival, though at the same time.
Working with both countries will put an emphasis on Islamabad’s commitment to a “no-camp politics,” according to Muhammad Faisal, a researcher studying South Asia security at the University of Technology in Sydney.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a significant infrastructure project connecting western China via Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, has received $ 62 billion in funding.
More than 80% of Pakistan’s military supplies come from China, and some of those products, particularly Chinese jets and missiles, were recently shown to be worth by their use in the recent conflict with India.
Both China and the US are important for Pakistan in their own right, Faisal told Al Jazeera. And while Islamabad may be preferred by the US and China, Pakistan’s popularity has a benefit for both.
He claimed that it “allows Islamabad to have a lot of diplomatic space” to expand cooperation with Beijing and Washington.
Pakistan faces yet another difficult situation as a result of the recent intense Israeli assault against key infrastructure and senior military and nuclear figures.
According to experts, Pakistan could serve as a potential mediator between the US and Iran due to its proximity and ties to Tehran.
“Playing a mediating role is in Pakistan’s best interest. Given its internal difficulties, it can’t afford another adversary to invade its western border,” Khan said.
Munir and Shehbaz Sharif, both of whom are prime ministers of Pakistan, traveled to Iran last month. He made contact with Iranian military chief of general Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, during the visit. Bagheri was one of the several military officials who perished in Israel’s initial wave of strikes on Friday.
Pakistan has vigorously opposed Iran’s right to self-defense ever since the Israeli strikes began, branding the Israeli strikes as “blatant provocations” and claiming they violate Iran’s territorial integrity.
A significant Shia minority, which consists of 15 to 20 percent of Pakistan’s population, seeks Iranian religious leadership.
Faisal noted that Pakistan’s public support for any US military intervention would be constrained by these demographic and geographic circumstances.
In order to contain the conflict, Islamabad can continue to call for diplomatic action and the cessation of hostilities. He claimed that Pakistan’s neighbors don’t want instability in Iran.
Not long after Israel issued a warning to residents of the northern Iranian city of Rasht, a massive fireball erupted through the night sky as a result of the bombing. The Sefidrood Industrial Park is said to have been hit by one of the strikes.
After dozens of face-mask agents converged on the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team’s parking lot on Thursday, officials at the league’s baseball team demanded that federal agents leave the stadium parking lot. Shortly after, protesters assembled in order to demand that immigration raids in Los Angeles be stopped.
President Trump will decide whether to attack Iran “within the next two weeks,” according to a White House spokesman. According to Karolina Leavitt, US and Iranian officials are still in contact and will decide whether to take action.
A retired military officer from Nicaragua who later became a critic of President Daniel Ortega was shot dead in his exiled, sprawling condo in Costa Rica.
Roberto Samcam, 67, passed away on Thursday, raising questions about Nicaraguan dissidents’ safety, even if they reside abroad.
A suspect shot the retired major at least eight times before entering Samcam’s condominium building in San Jose at around 7:30 am local time (13:30 GMT).
The murder weapon was a 9mm pistol, according to Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Organization. Claudia Vargas, Samcam’s wife, claimed the suspect lied to be a deliveryman to gain access to her husband according to Reuters news agency.
The suspect allegedly fled on a motorcycle after firing a gun on Samcam before fleeing without a word. He is still at large.
Samcam left his country after taking part in the protests in 2018. They started as counterprotests against social security reforms and quickly grew into one of the biggest anti-government movements in the country’s history.
Nicaragua’s streets were flooded by countless people. Some even demanded the resignation of Ortega.
Ortega did ultimately halt the social security reforms, but he also responded to the protests with a police crackdown, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 355 people, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
More than 2, 000 people were injured, and 2, 000 were detained according to the IACHR, for “arbitrary detention.”
Ortega has continued to demand punishment for the protesters and organizations he compared to a “coup” in the months and years following the demonstrations.
Samcam was one of the critics who criticised Ortega’s use of paramilitary forces and military equipment to thwart the demonstrations. Both have been refuted by Ortega.
For instance, he compared Ortega to Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the final of the nearly 43-year-old Somoza family dictatorship, in a 2019 interview with Confidencial.
And Samcam published a book in the year 2022 called Ortega: El Calvario de Nicaragua, which roughly means Ortega: Nicaragua’s agony.
Ortega has long been accused of authoritarian tendencies and human rights violations. For instance, he seized hundreds of dissidents’ property in 2023 and stripped them of their citizenship, leaving them as essentially stateless.
Additionally, he has pushed for constitutional changes to strengthen both his and his wife’s, former vice president Rosario Murillo’s, position. Ortega serves as Ortega’s co-president, and she now leads.
Additionally, the changes give Ortega more authority to oversee all “legislative, judicial, electoral, control, and supervisory bodies,” giving him more authority to oversee virtually all government agencies.
Samcam was assisting in the investigation into some of Ortega’s alleged abuses from abroad.
He was appointed the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress’ (Cabinet of Conscience), a nonprofit headed by Oscar Arias, a Costa Rican president, in the fall of 2020.
In order to bring a legal action against the Nicaraguan president and his officials, Samcam as part of the group scoured the public’s testimony of abuses and torture committed under Ortega.
According to Samcam, “We are documenting each case so that it can be moved on to a trial, possibly before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.”
Samcam is not the only dissident from Nicaragua who has experienced an alleged assassination attempt while living abroad.
In addition to living in the capital of Costa Rica, Joao Maldonado, a student leader in the protests of 2018, has survived two similar attempts. He and his partner were seriously injured in the most recent incident, which occurred in January 2024.