In a world edging dangerously close to a wider war, where weeks of escalation between the United States, Israel and Iran have threatened to spiral into a catastrophic regional conflict, Pakistan has emerged as an unlikely but decisive diplomatic actor. Through sustained backchannel engagement and careful balancing of competing alliances, Islamabad helped bring two deeply distrustful adversaries to a temporary ceasefire, hopefully averting what would be one of the most consequential geopolitical...