Influential US Senator Lindsey Graham has expressed outrage at a media report claiming that Pakistan, which has played a leading role in efforts to broker an end to the Iran war, allowed Tehran to station aircraft at Pakistani bases.
"I don't trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them," the Republican said during a Senate committee hearing during which he asked US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine whether the report was accurate.
Both Hegseth and Caine chose not to comment on the matter.
"If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakistan bases to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking for somebody else to mediate," Graham said.
He suggested this was the reason that negotiations between Washington and Tehran have stalled for weeks.
It comes after CBS News reported, citing unnamed US government officials, that Tehran moved several military aircraft to a base near Islamabad shortly after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran in early April.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry dismissed the report as "misleading" and "sensationalized" in a statement on X.
It said that some Iranian and US aircraft had arrived in Pakistan following the announcement of the ceasefire to support logistics for the peace negotiations between the two countries held in Islamabad.
Some aircraft and personnel had subsequently remained in the country in anticipation of further talks, it said.
Trump, meanwhile, said he would not replace Pakistan as a mediator.
"No, they're great," he said.
