As Donald Trump considers visiting Pakistan in case of an agreement with Iran, Marshal Asim Munir is at the heart of the negotiations, having become the first chief of the Pakistani armies to be invited to lunch at the White House.
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“Pakistan has been fantastic. If the agreement is signed in Islamabad, I could go there,” said Donald Trump, on Thursday, April 16, after indicating that the United States and Iran were “very close” to an agreement. Pakistan is the main mediator, and Marshal Asim Munir was at the same time in Iran to meet with Parliament President Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, seen as the main interlocutor of the Tehran regime.
Although not often heard, the Marshal is recognizable by his mustache, his command baton, and the compliment he regularly receives from Donald Trump, who has made him his “favorite marshal”. His rise to power is fairly recent, dating back to his outstanding success during the brief war with India last year.
He then became the first chief of the Pakistani armies to be invited to lunch at the White House by Donald Trump, who discusses Iranians with this Pakistani chief of staff, who, he says, knows Iran well. US Vice President JD Vance explicitly thanked Asim Munir for the “exceptional work.”
For the Trump administration, Marshal Asim Munir is a reliable player in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and an economic partner in the rare minerals sector. Internally, he is criticized for his authoritarianism. He is the strongman of Pakistan.
A few months ago, he had a constitutional reform adopted that gives him lifetime immunity. Pakistan shares a 900 km border with Iran, with whom it maintains warm, though sometimes tense, relations, due to important cultural and commercial ties. The country is also a neighbor of China, with whom it has good relations, a crucial aspect according to diplomats and Donald Trump to bring Iran to the negotiating table.
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