ORIGINAL HEADLINE · AP · 2026-04-25 — “Talks Stumble As Iran’s Top Diplomat Leaves Pakistan” · read source
THE WAR ROOM — At zero-nine-hundred hours this morning I was at my whiteboard, marker in hand, when the satellite imagery came in. By satellite imagery I mean a screenshot of Pakistan from Google Earth that I have circled in red.
The kinetic situation in the Iranian theater remains, as of this filing, kinetic. That is a word we in the intelligence community use when we have not been told what is happening but it is clearly something.
Iran’s Foreign Minister has flown to Pakistan. Pakistan, for those of you scoring at home, is a separate country. The Iranians have asked the Pakistanis to mediate, which is the diplomatic equivalent of asking your roommate to help you write a breakup text.
I have a map. The map shows that Pakistan is next to Iran. This is what we call STRATEGIC POSITIONING. It is also what we call BEING NEXT TO IRAN.
What does this mean for American interests? In layman’s terms — and I am here to translate — it means we now have two countries who are not going to figure this out instead of one. That is what military analysts call REDUNDANCY.
Stay tuned. The kinetic situation remains kinetic. I will be at the whiteboard.