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• Exploratory talks held during Iranian interior minister’s recent Islamabad visit
• Dar meets Araghchi at SCO summit; Qatar calls for implementing Islamabad MoU
• Beijing concerned as Red Sea closure would compound Hormuz woes
• Trump says Iran getting serious about talks; warns China, Russia against ‘getting involved’ in conflict
• Says US will punish Iran for attacks on ships by Houthi rebels
• Four die as US continues strikes on Iran

ISLAMABAD / DUBAI: Pakistan is said to be exploring a path towards a resumption of stalled US-Iran talks to end their nearly five-month-old war, following a push initiated by China.

The development came as US missiles struck targets across Iran on Friday after President Donald Trump vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen for extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint, the mouth of the Red Sea.

According to Reuters, exploratory discussions for the fresh push towards talks took place during a visit by Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Islamabad this week, his second within the last 10 days.

Earlier this week, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels had declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, which signed a mutual defence treaty with Pakistan last year.

Beijing, which has consistently backed Pakistan’s mediation efforts, had dispatched its special envoy in March to lead a shuttle-diplomacy trip around the Middle East.

China’s interests are being harmed by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and disruptions to the Red Sea route would hit another key trade route Beijing relies on.

In a statement, China’s foreign ministry said “China supports the mediation efforts made by Pakistan and other parties.”

It added that China will continue to “play an active role in restoring peace and tranquility in the Middle East Gulf region as soon as possible.”

Separately, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called on all parties to commit to dialogue and to implement the terms of the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.

This includes “ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, to preserve regional security, safeguard the gains achieved, and enhance regional stability”, the Qatari foreign ministry said.

Sheikh Mohammed made the remarks in Doha during a meeting with the new British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband.

Implementing the memorandum was necessary to preserve regional security, safeguard the gains achieved and strengthen stability, Sheikh Mohammed said, reiterating Qatar’s full support for efforts to defuse tensions and reach a comprehensive agreement securing lasting peace in the region.

‘Serious about talks’

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Friday that he had not decided on whether to launch major strikes on Iran as Tehran was now getting “very serious” in talks with Washington.

“Look, we’re talking to them right now. I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason.”

Earlier, in a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said that he does not believe China or Russia are “participating” in the ongoing Iran conflict, but warned that if they did get inv­o­lved “it would be very bad for them”.

Trump also said that he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by Yemeni fighters, “and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves”.

Iranian media cited the head of Iran’s top joint military command as saying Iran would kill a member of the US forces for every Iranian killed.

On Friday, US missiles struck a Revolutionary Guards Navy headquarters in the Ziba Kenar area of the Caspian Sea province of Gilan, according to a security official in Gilan. Provincial authorities said US projectiles had also struck the port city of Bandar Anzali, according to the ILNA news agency.

Four people were killed and five injured in a US attack on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, the state broadcaster IRIB said.

Diplomatic contacts

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Ara­g­hchi, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said the two top diplomats reviewed the ongoing regional situation and bilateral ties.

“DPM/FM expressed deep concern over recent regional tensions and underscored the importance of dialogue, restraint, de-escalation by all sides, and sustained diplomatic engagement to achieve lasting peace and stability,” the FO said in a post on X.

“He emphasised the need to build on the understandings reached und­er the Islamabad MoU of June 2026.”

“The two sides agreed to maintain close coordination and regular consultations on issues of mutual interest and reaffirmed their commitment to working together for regional peace, stability and shared prosperity,” the statement concluded.

Separately, in his remarks at the SCO summit, Mr Dar said: “Pakistan firmly believes that dialogue, diplomacy and mutual respect provide the only sustainable way forward to resolve conflicts and achieve durable peace and security.”

He added that this principle led to Pakistan hosting talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad in April, “enabling first high-level direct diplomatic contact between the two sides after 47 years”.

Mr Dar then urged the international community to seize the opportunity provided by the Islamabad MoU and US-Iran technical talks to push for lasting peace.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2026

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ISLAMABAD: Following the cancellation of the official accommodation allotted to Peshawar High Court (PHC) Justice Babar Sattar in Islamabad, the IHC registrar on Friday issued him a notice directing him to vacate the residence within 30 days.

On April 28, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan approved the transfer of Justice Sattar from the IHC to the PHC. Following his transfer, Justice Sattar had decided to continue residing in the federal capital during his tenure at the provincial high court instead of seeking a separate official residence in Peshawar.

According to the notice issued by the IHC registrar, the Estate Office cancelled the allotment of the official residence on July 3.

The notice stated that Justice Sattar had been transferred from the IHC to the PHC and, following the cancellation of the allotment, had been given one month to vacate the premises.

It further clarified that the 30-day period would be calculated from July 3, the date on which the Estate Office cancelled the allotment. Accordingly, the judge was required to vacate his Islamabad residence by Aug 3.

Sources said Justice Sattar had earlier conveyed to the IHC administration his intention to retain the accommodation in Islamabad.

The issue of official accommodation for superior court judges has long remained contentious.

In 2023, a judgment authored by Justice Sattar held that judges were entitled to official accommodation from the date of their appointment and throughout their service, with the entitlement flowing from the presidential order rather than the general accommodation rules applicable to federal government employees.

Sources further said officials visited Justice Sattar’s Islamabad residence on Wednesday but left shortly afterwards because the judge was on judicial leave and was not present at the residence at the time.

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Anthropic on Friday released Claude Opus 5, a new artificial intelligence model the company says approaches the performance of its most powerful system at half the price.

The San Francisco-based startup, a chief rival to OpenAI, said the model tops industry benchmarks for coding and knowledge work while consuming fewer computing resources than earlier versions.

The claim addressed the rising concerns of business customers who have baulked at the expense of running advanced AI systems.

Claude competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, and customers pay based on the amount of work performed, measured in units called tokens.

Opus 5 costs $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens, half the price of Fable 5, Anthropic’s most expensive publicly available offering.

The company said the new model performs close to Fable 5 across many tasks despite the lower cost.

Cost has become a major issue after Anthropic and its archrival OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, both filed for stock market listings in June.

Wall Street is scrutinising their business performance more closely than ever ahead of their market debuts.

On cybersecurity, Anthropic said it deliberately avoided training Opus 5 on cyber tasks, and that the model remains behind Mythos 5 — its most capable and most tightly restricted system, available only to select partners — on both offensive cyber work and biological research capabilities that could be misused.

Mythos is Anthropic’s most advanced series of AI models, and its strength at finding weaknesses in computer systems — and at turning those weaknesses into working attacks — has caused controversy and pushed the company to build tight guardrails around them.

The company said Opus 5 finds software flaws about as well as Mythos 5 but lags far behind in turning those flaws into something that could be weaponised into an attack.

Citing the reduced risk, Anthropic said its automated safety filters will intervene roughly 85 per cent less often on Opus 5 than on Fable 5, the Mythos-class model it released last month.

Fable 5 and Mythos 5 were briefly pulled from public access in June after the US Commerce Department imposed export controls, which were lifted at the end of that month.

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• Flood Forecasting Division warns flows may rise further by July 25 amid new monsoon spell
• Urban flooding likely in parts of Punjab, KP and Balochistan

LAHORE: The Chenab River continued to remain in a high-flood state on Thursday as torrential rains lashed held Kashmir and several parts of Punjab.

“The water level in the Chenab River at Marala and Khanki has subsided to medium flood. However, the river is flowing in high flood at Qadirabad and Chiniot Bridge. It is expected to subside by the time it reaches Trimmu Headworks after passing Chiniot Bridge,” a senior irrigation department official told Dawn. “This is according to a fresh report issued on Thursday evening,” he added.

However, he warned of a possible rise in the river’s water level again at Marala if rains continued in held Kashmir.

“Rains are still continuing in parts of held Kashmir. We will receive Thurs­day’s report from held Kashmir on Friday (today). Let’s see what happens,” he added.

According to the Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) of the Pakistan Meteo­rological Department, the Chenab River at Khanki and Qadirabad is in high flood, while it is in medium flood at Marala.

“The Indus River at Tarbela and Chashma, the Kabul River at Nowshera, the Chenab River at Chiniot bridge and the Ravi River at Balloki are in low flood. All other major rivers are flowing at normal levels at other gauging stations,” the FFD said in its daily report.

Warning

However, it stated that scattered to widespread rain, accompanied by wind and thunderstorms with isolated heavy to very heavy falls, was expected over the catchments of all major rivers due to a westerly weather system coupled with strong monsoon currents deflected from the Bay of Bengal.

“Consequently, river flows are likely to increase significantly up to July 25,” it warned.

The FFD also predicted flash flooding in the hill torrents of Dera Ghazi Khan, streams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan. It also warned of urban flooding in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, Narowal, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Okara and Sahiwal.

For the next 24 hours, the FFD forecast widespread rain, wind and thunderstorms, with isolated heavy to very heavy falls over the upper catchments of all major rivers, Islamabad and Kashmir.

It also predicted similar weather conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Abb­o­ttabad, Bajaur, Bannu, Batagram, Buner, Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Haripur, Karak, Khyber, Kohat, Kurram, Lakki Marwat, Mansehra, Mardan, Moh­mand, Waziristan, Nowshera, Orakzai, Pe­­shawar, Shangla, Swabi, Swat, Tank and Dir.

The FFD also forecast similar weather conditions in Punjab’s Rawalpindi, Atto­­ck, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Chiniot, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Hafiz­abad, Jhelum, Kasur, Lahore, Lodhran, Mandi Bahauddin, Nankana Sahib, Narowal, Okara, Pakpattan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Toba Tek Singh and Vehari.

It added that similar weather conditions were likely in Sindh’s Badin, Mirpu­rkhas, Sanghar, Tharparkar and Umer­kot, and Balochistan’s Qila Saifullah, Loralai, Musakhel, Sherani and Zhob.

Meanwhile, regarding water levels and live storage in major reservoirs, Wapda’s daily report said Tarbela Dam had a water level of 1,519.11 feet with live storage of 3.891 million acre feet (MAF).

Mangla Dam’s water level stood at 1,183.90 feet with live storage of 3.297 MAF, while Chashma Lake had a water level of 645.50 feet and live storage of 0.157 MAF on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2026

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UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday praised Pakistan’s initiative at the UN Security Council (UNSC) to strengthen mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes, saying the move was particularly important at a time when conflicts were escalating across the Middle East and beyond.

Addressing an UNSC open debate held pursuant to Pakistan-sponsored Resolution 2788 (2025), the UN chief presented recommendations aimed at making diplomacy, mediation and conflict prevention more effective tools for maintaining international peace and security.

The resolution, which was presented by Pakistan during its presidency of the UNSC last year and adopted unanimously by the Council, seeks to strengthen the use of peaceful means available under the UN Charter, including negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement.

Pakistan had argued that diplomacy should not be used only after conflicts erupt but should serve as a means to prevent crises from escalating.

“As conflicts escalate across the Middle East and beyond, military solutions cannot deliver lasting peace,” Guterres said, calling for restraint, protection of civilians and renewed commitment to diplomacy.

“The situation is getting out of control. It’s teetering on the edge of the unimaginable,” the secretary-general warned, noting that the region was being “pulled into another widening circle of confrontation.”

“One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” he said, adding that as this dynamic spreads, “the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.”

“It’s time to step back,” Guterres said, stressing that “attacks on civilian infrastructure are unacceptable” and that “there’s no military solution to the conflict.”

“Fighting must stop everywhere in the region,” he said, while calling for the restoration of “international navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab.”

“Diplomacy is the only way forward,” the UN chief added.

Recognising Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts, Guterres said: “I want to recognise the mediation of Pakistan and countries in the region working to reduce tensions and create space for dialogue.”

“These efforts must be supported and strengthened in pursuit of a peaceful and durable settlement,” he said.

The secretary-general also highlighted developments in the occupied West Bank, saying: “We see creeping annexation with violence, settlement expansion, extensive Israeli military operations and large-scale displacement.”

Pakistan welcomed the secretary-general’s recommendations, with Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Islamabad’s permanent representative to the UN, expressing “profound appreciation” for what he described as “thoughtful, practical and forward-looking” proposals.

Speaking at the UNSC debate, Ambassador Ahmad said sustained implementation of the recommendations would strengthen not only mechanisms for peaceful settlement of disputes but also reinforce implementation of the UN Charter itself.

“These recommendations carry significance far beyond today’s meeting,” he said, adding that they could help “restore conflict prevention and resolution to its rightful place, at the heart of the United Nations, and translate the promise of Chapter VI into practice.”

The ambassador said Resolution 2788 was conceived in the spirit that diplomacy must not be “the instrument we scramble for, after peace has failed,” but rather the means through which failure could be prevented.

He said the challenge was not the absence of mechanisms under the Charter but their “delayed, selective and inconsistent use,” warning that the Security Council often became engaged only after positions had hardened and the space for compromise had narrowed.

Ambassador Ahmad said Pakistan remained committed to peaceful settlement of disputes and cited Islamabad’s recent diplomatic engagement in West Asia as an example of efforts to facilitate dialogue. He said Pakistan, together with partner countries, had played a constructive mediating role between Iran and the United States, helping create space for negotiations.

He expressed regret over renewed hostilities and urged all sides to exercise restraint and return to dialogue, saying that whenever negotiations falter, “the answer is not in less but more determined diplomacy.”

The Pakistani envoy called for stronger follow-up mechanisms for UNSC resolutions, greater use of fact-finding and mediation tools, increased support for the secretary-general’s good offices, and closer cooperation between the UN and regional organisations.

He said the value of Resolution 2788 would ultimately be measured not by the unanimity with which it was adopted but by the consistency with which it was implemented.

“History documents the wars that broke out. It rarely records the war that did not begin because a channel remained open, a mediator persisted, a leader exercised restraint or an institution acted in time,” Ambassador Ahmad said, describing prevention and peaceful settlement as diplomacy’s highest achievements.

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WHILE the exchange of fire across the Gulf — and the wider Middle East — continues between the US and Iran, efforts are also underway to de-escalate matters and revive the ceasefire. An important development in this regard was the series of meetings between Iranian Interior Minister Eskander Momeni and Pakistan’s top civil and military officials on Tuesday.

As expected, the regional situation was amongst the main agenda items, and Mr Momeni indicated that talks will continue. That Tehran sent a senior official to Pakistan shows that despite the hostilities, it is still interested in an off-ramp. Meanwhile, speaking in Manila yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio used a tough tone for Iran, but did not rule out the possibility of a diplomatic settlement to the conflict.

Revival of the peace process is an incredibly difficult undertaking. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his country is in a “full-scale war” with the US, and the growing escalation over the last two weeks shows that the conflict is headed in a very dangerous direction. Yet the recent developments in Islamabad, and the fact that the US has not yet slammed the door shut on negotiations, show that there is still a chance — however slim — of restarting the dialogue process. At the same time, trust levels between Washington and Tehran are very low, and it will take exceptional diplomatic skill to bring both belligerents back to the table.

As hard as the task to revive the peace process may be, the alternative is a regional war which will be far more destructive than the last round. Already the theatre has expanded, with Iran attacking US bases beyond the Gulf, and Yemen’s Houthis enforcing a blockade of Saudi ships in the Red Sea. To prevent an even more alarming escalation, both sides need to silence their guns and give the negotiators a chance to create the framework for a doable peace.

The US must stop attacking Iran and issuing fresh threats, while Iran must refrain from targeting the Gulf states. The escalation may seem controlled at the moment, but in such situations, things can easily get out of hand, and spiral into something much bigger. And just as states such as Pakistan are working behind the scenes to de-escalate, some forces are trying their best to ensure hostilities continue.

For example, US Vice President J.D. Vance recently said in a podcast that some in Israel want “to keep the war going on indefinitely”. The American president should realise that continuing on the warpath with Iran will lead to a regional conflagration, and the only way to end this unnecessary conflict is for the US and Iran to work with Pakistan and other negotiators to find an honourable exit.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2026

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Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in the Khud Kocha sub-tehsil of Mastung district on Wednesday after three people were killed and five others injured in a gun attack on a Karachi-bound passenger bus, while a bridge on the National Highway was damaged in an explosion in the area.

Citing the deteriorating security situation, the Balochistan Home Department imposed an indefinite curfew in the sub-tehsil from 9pm on Wednesday.

Babar Yousafzai, spokesperson for the Home Department, said the curfew would remain in force until further orders to maintain peace and public safety. Residents were not allowed to leave their homes, and all unnecessary movement was prohibited.

“Strict legal action will be taken against anyone found violating the curfew orders,” Yousafzai said, urging citizens to avoid unnecessary travel and cooperate with authorities until normal conditions were restored.

The gun and bomb attacks were reported at a time when security forces killed 10 terrorists and arrested two female suicide bombers, along with their facilitator, during intelligence-based operations in Mastung and Surab districts over the past 48 hours, according to the military’s media wing.

Police said a passenger coach operated by a private transport company was travelling from Quetta to Karachi when it came under indiscriminate fire in the Garo area of Khud Kocha tehsil.

Armed men positioned on nearby mountains opened fire on the bus, killing three passengers and injuring five others.

Security forces and rescue personnel rushed to the scene and shifted the bodies and the injured to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Mastung.

The bodies were handed over to the victims’ families after legal formalities were completed, while authorities launched an investigation into the attack and began searching for those responsible.

Bridge damaged

Traffic between Quetta and Karachi remained suspended for several hours after a bridge on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway in the Khud Kocha area of Mastung district was damaged.

A police official confirmed that terrorists had planted explosives under the bridge in the Anjari area of Khud Kocha and detonated them in the early hours of Wednesday.

“The bridge was badly damaged in the explosion, suspending all kinds of traffic on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway. However, no casualties were reported in the blast,” the police official said.

Long queues of buses, goods trucks and other vehicles were seen on both sides of the highway following the blast.

Later in the evening, authorities allowed small vehicles to travel after making alternative arrangements. Security forces reached the area soon after the explosion and launched a search operation to trace those involved in the attack.

Earlier this month, security forces and law enforcement personnel jointly launched Operation Shaban in Balochistan in retaliation for a deadly attack on a police post at the Mangi Dam pumping station in Ziarat on July 6. During that assault, armed attackers kidnapped and killed 27 police officers.

A monthly security assessment released in early June by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said that after two consecutive months of improvement, Pakistan’s security situation deteriorated sharply in May, driven primarily by escalating terrorist violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The report said Balochistan emerged as the most affected province during the month. The province recorded 71 terrorist attacks, compared with 34 in April, representing a 109pc increase.

The deteriorating security situation was further reflected in a surge in kidnappings, it said. Of the 54 abductions reported nationwide during May, 52 occurred in Balochistan alone, highlighting the growing operational reach and confidence of terrorist groups in the province, it said.

On July 9, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the country’s civil and military leadership had taken a “mutual and singular decision” to end terrorism after multiple major terrorist incidents in Balochistan.

He made the remarks at a meeting in Quetta of the Provincial Apex Committee on the National Action Plan, with Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir also present.

PM Shehbaz’s statement came a day after the military Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry addressed a press conference, pointing the finger squarely at India and Afghanistan for being behind recent attacks in Balochistan.

He specifically mentioned “three major terrorist incidents” in recent days — an armed attack on the outskirts of Quetta on July 5, an assault on a police post in Ziarat on July 6, and an ambush of an army convoy in Bela on July 7.

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