Pakistan chose itself as the venue. Islamabad beat Oman and Qatar — the usual Gulf mediators — to host the first face-to-face U.S.-Iran talks since 2015. Twenty-one hours later, Vice President JD Vance walked out without a deal, but praised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir as "incredible hosts." [1]

The talks failed on substance. But for Pakistan, the hosting itself was the product. NPR reported that the capital "has been preparing for days" and that the diplomatic moment had put Pakistan "at the center of the biggest story in the world." [2] The country that struggled for years to be taken seriously in great-power diplomacy is now the venue of record for the Iran war's only direct negotiation.

X is split. Some accounts credit Islamabad's genuine shuttle diplomacy — Pakistan facilitated the ceasefire that both Trump and Tehran acknowledged. Others see a country monetizing proximity to crisis, leveraging its geographic position between the Gulf and Central Asia to extract diplomatic capital from a war it cannot end.

MSM coverage treats Pakistan's role as earnest and consequential. What goes unexamined is the structural incentive: as long as the war continues and talks are needed, Pakistan remains indispensable. A breakthrough would end the attention. A collapse returns the parties to their corners. The limbo in between is where Islamabad's leverage lives.

The next round of talks, whenever it comes, will almost certainly return to the Serena Hotel.

-- PRIYA SHARMA, Delhi