ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi vowed on Monday that Islamabad would continue backing efforts to promote lasting peace in the region between the United States and Iran, stressing that talks are better than military confrontation.

Pakistan has played an active role in mediating between the US and Iran ever since the former attacked the latter with Israel in February, sparking a military conflict in the region. Pakistan hosted talks between both sides in April, brokered an interim peace deal in June that subsequently collapsed in July. Hostilities in and around the Strait of Hormuz have not stopped since then.

Naqvi was speaking to participants of the Global Security Forum 2026 in Doha on Monday. Organized by The Soufan Center and the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies (QIASS), the event will run from Oct. 19-21 under the theme, ‘The Future of Alliances.’ It features senior government officials, security experts, policymakers, academics and journalists who will discuss major global security challenges, geopolitical tensions and international cooperation.

“Pakistan has always believed that dialogue is better than war,” Naqvi said in televised remarks. “Pakistan is proud of the role it has played in recent peace efforts. We will continue to support dialogue, peace and cooperation

because we believe that winning peace is far more important than winning a war,” he added.

The minister said that the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement (MJDA), a recent trilateral pact that Islamabad signed with Ankara and Riyadh in August, was an example of Pakistan’s commitment to regional security.

The three nations signed the pact in Makkah, which stipulates that any act of aggression against one of them will be considered an attack on all of them. The pact was signed as tensions in the Middle East persisted amid the US-Iran war and the hostility of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels surged.

“It is a pact for defense, not for war,” Naqvi said, reiterating Islamabad’s earlier position that the MJDA is not against any country.

Tensions remain high in the Middle East, with Washington maintaining a naval counterblockade on Iranian ports. Tehran has urged Washington to accept its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime trade route through which nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies were shipped through before the war began.

While US President Donald Trump has ruled out a nuclear attack on Iran, he raised the possibility of further strikes on its nuclear facilities in an interview to a US cable news outlet last week.