Podcasts · In Our Defence

Pakistan Helped Shape Iran’s Nuclear Story. Now It’s Hosting US Peace Talks | In Our Defence | S3 | Ep 48

24 Apr 2026 · 56 min

In this episode of In Our Defence, we step away from the predictable outrage and look at the harder, more interesting question: why does Pakistan remain useful in high-stakes geopolitics despite its long record of contradictions? Host Dev Goswami and national security expert Sandeep Unnithan unpack Pakistan's complicated ties with the United States, its uneasy relationship with Iran, its growing closeness to Saudi Arabia, and the larger truth that diplomacy is often driven less by morality and more by access, leverage, geography and utility. They discuss the irony of how Pakistan with its history of having helped seed Iran's nuclear program is now helping broker talks that hinge on Tehran agreeing to give up its nuclear capabilities. The two also get into the Osama bin Laden episode, the strange durability of US-Pakistan ties, and the role "middlemen" play in crises where nobody fully trusts anybody. Tune In! Produced by Taniya Dutta Sound mixed by Rohan Bharti

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)