Mourners carry the coffin of Lebanese army captain Elie Khoury, who was killed by Israeli bombardment, during his funeral in his home village of Kfar Jarra near Jezzine in southern Lebanon on 8 June 2026. [Getty]
The heads of the Pakistani and Lebanese armed forces agreed to boost cooperation on Tuesday as they met in Pakistan with peace talks over the US-Israeli war on Iran and its fallout dragging on.
Pakistan has been mediating between the United States and Iran to end the months-long conflict, with Tehran insisting that any deal should include Lebanon and even Gaza.
Lebanese army chief Rodolphe Haykal left on Saturday to meet his powerful Pakistani counterpart Asim Munir, with a Lebanon-based source telling AFP the visit was linked to the broader peace talks.
The two military commanders discussed “matters of mutual interest, (the) evolving regional security environment, defence cooperation and prospects for enhancing bilateral military relations”, a statement from the media wing of the Pakistani military said on Tuesday.
Munir “underscored (the) Pakistan Army’s commitment to expanding defence collaboration with the Lebanese Armed Forces,” it said, after Haykal received a guard of honour ahead of the meeting in the city of Rawalpindi.
Conflict in Lebanon has become a centrepiece of weeks of stop-start efforts to bring a formal end to the war.
Armed hostilities flared further during Haykal’s visit, after Israel struck the Lebanese capital on Sunday afternoon. The next day, both Iran and Israel indicated that they had halted the fighting.
US President Donald Trump, who has expressed frustration at the slow progress of peace talks, said on Tuesday that negotiators were in the “final throes” of reaching a deal.
Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasion of Lebanon have killed nearly 3,600 people since 2 March alone, attacking heavily despite a so-called ceasefire on 17 April.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said a US-Iranian agreement to end the war was “about to be achieved” when fresh fighting between Iran and Israel erupted on Sunday.
Even after an April “ceasefire” agreement began, the Israeli military announced a so-called “Yellow Line” inside Lebanese territory about a dozen kilometres from its northern border, where its ground troops are fighting with Hezbollah.
