PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE

Islamabad greets the Kharg threat with a mix of alarm and skepticism, weighing every move in the Gulf like a neighbor whose economy depends on imported oil. The Pakistani press runs two registers. The first is explanatory and cautious: Dawn, the paper of record, leads on the 'alarm and skepticism' following the threat and compiles world media reactions to underline 'the gap between rhetoric and military feasibility.' It quotes New York Times correspondent Jonathan Swan recalling that Trump has 'repeatedly said he would attack Kharg during the war' and that 'Iran has consistently called his bluff.' The second register is markets: The Express Tribune notes Brent climbing to $92.11 and WTI to $88.80 amid fresh strikes and falling US crude stocks, reintroducing a 'geopolitical risk premium' into prices. Dawn also runs a technical factbox on Kharg and Iran's energy sector — proof of a local appetite to understand the workings of a crisis that, through fuel prices and imported inflation, hits Pakistani wallets directly. The framing is that of a nation peripheral to the conflict but exposed to all its shockwaves, one that refuses to take Washington's rhetoric at face value.