President Donald Trump is proclaiming victory in the Iran war after declaring a ceasefire this week — but according to a conservative writer who specializes in South Asia, Pakistan is the real winner.“Pakistan’s prominent role in brokering a two-week cease-fire between the U.S. and Israel and Iran places it in an unusual position: on the front line of international diplomacy,” reported The Wall Street Journal’s Sadanand Dhume, who also achieved a senior fellowship at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. According to Dhume, Field Marshal Asim Munir successfully manipulated Trump’s predicament after invading Iran to position Pakistan as a peacebroker.“The saga isn’t over,” Dhume warned. “Pakistan remains economically precarious and ethnically riven, and a defense pact Pakistan signed last year with Saudi Arabia could draw Islamabad directly into the Iran war should the conflict resume. But at least for now, it looks as if the cunning field marshal has decisively outplayed the flamboyant former cricketer.”Trump, for his part, has denied reports such as one from the Financial Times that he came to Pakistan “begging” for their help negotiating a ceasefire. Despite publicly claiming to be mastering the conflict, the report indicates that Trump privately pushed for a ceasefire for weeks to end the economic problems caused to Americans by their closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Five people familiar with Trump’s diplomatic back channel to Pakistan claim that he had sought their aid since March 21, twenty-two days after he began the war.“And just so we set the record straight,” Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting in response to the stories, “because I’ve been watching the Wall Street Journal’s fake news, and all these stories that get printed like, ‘Oh, I want to make a deal.’ They are begging to make a deal, not me.”When AlterNet reached out to the White House for comment, they referred us to a comment by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, She also contradicted the Financial Times’ report.“The Iranians originally put forward a 10-point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable, and completely discarded... many outlets in this room have falsely reported on that plan as being acceptable to the United States, and that is false,” Leavitt said in the public statement on X. “With @POTUS' deadline fast approaching, and the United States military completely decimating Iran with each passing hour, the regime acknowledged reality to the negotiating team. They put forward a more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to @POTUS and his team. President Trump and the team determined the new modified plan was a workable basis on which to negotiate..."