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As Pakistan positioned itself as a diplomatic conduit between Tehran and Washington, it quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a categorical rejection of the report on Monday, dismissing the CBS News account as "misleading and sensationalized" and saying the aircraft arrived as part of routine logistical arrangements to support the Islamabad peace talks. The ministry said the planes "bear no linkage whatsoever to any military contingency or preservation arrangement."
The disclosure, reported by CBS News, casts a long shadow over Islamabad's carefully managed neutrality and arrives at a moment of acute diplomatic fragility, with a nominal ceasefire between Washington and Tehran crumbling under the weight of dueling ultimatums, fresh military clashes, and a peace process that has yielded no agreement.
According to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters, Iranian aircraft arrived at Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan in the days following the ceasefire President Trump announced in early April.
The aircraft included an RC-130, a surveillance variant of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules used for reconnaissance and signals intelligence.
Nur Khan, situated on the edge of Rawalpindi adjacent to the capital Islamabad, serves as a hub for Pakistan's air mobility operations and has hosted senior American and Iranian delegations throughout the mediation process.
A senior Pakistani official flatly denied the account, telling CBS News that Nur Khan is embedded in a densely populated urban area and that a significant parking of foreign military aircraft there "can't be hidden from public eye." U.S. Central Command declined to comment directly, directing CBS News to Pakistani and Afghan officials instead.
Iranian civilian aircraft also flew to Afghanistan during the conflict, according to the report, though it was not confirmed whether military planes were among them. A civil aviation officer in Afghanistan said a Mahan Air civilian aircraft had landed in Kabul shortly before hostilities began.
Once Iranian airspace was closed, the plane remained stranded at Kabul International Airport. When Pakistani jets subsequently struck Kabul during a separate military escalation stemming from the long-running dispute between Islamabad and the Taliban government over alleged Pakistani Taliban sanctuaries in Afghanistan, Afghan civil aviation authorities moved the aircraft west to Herat Airport, near the Iranian border, to protect it from potential bombardment.
The civil aviation officer described it as the only Iranian aircraft in the country. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the claim outright, saying, "No, that's not true and Iran doesn't need to do that."
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