PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE

Islamabad, May 28, 2026. The night of May 27-28 marked a turning point that Pakistan's press is following with increased attention: US forces conducted new strikes on southern Iran, targeting, according to Washington, an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, before the Revolutionary Guards retaliated by targeting a US base. Geo News and Dawn confirmed the two sequences: first the US attack on southern Iran, then the IRGC's response. For Islamabad, this spiral occurs at a particularly sensitive time.

Pakistan shares a 900-kilometer border with Iran. Any destabilization of Iranian territory or expansion of the conflict towards the Arabian Sea poses a direct risk to Pakistan's trade routes and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with several axes converging on the port of Gwadar, just 200 kilometers from the Iranian border. Dawn reports that the US strikes were triggered after Trump publicly rejected reports of an imminent compromise agreement with Tehran, making any short-term de-escalation uncertain.

The Express Tribune highlights the nature of what could have been agreed upon: a framework agreement providing for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic and the lifting of the US naval blockade. This perspective is now distant. Twenty percent of global oil trade passes through this strait, and Pakistan, a net energy importer, is directly exposed to the consequences of a prolonged closure. Brent has already surged 3.75% to reach $97.83 per barrel — an additional pressure on a Pakistani economy already weakened by inflation.

Islamabad's diplomatic posture is delicate. Pakistan maintains historical ties with the US, on which it partially relies for its security architecture, but also cultivates close ties with Tehran, particularly on energy and transborder issues. In this context, Pakistani media abstain from taking sides: they report the facts — US strikes, IRGC retaliation, Trump's rejection of any agreement — without endorsing either the US narrative of legitimate defense or Iranian rhetoric of resistance.

The May 27-28 incident is described by Dawn as more serious than the April 8 ceasefire. For Islamabad, the risk of a regional conflagration is not theoretical: it translates concretely into oil prices, trade flows, and a shared border with a militarily pressured state.