“I don’t trust them”: Senator Lindsey Graham demands US ditch Pakan as mediator after shocking Iran aircraft claims
3 min readMay 13, 2026 12:59 AM Casting shadow over the ongoing mediation between US and Iran, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday called for rejecting Pakan as the mediator for talks in West Asia and declared that he doesn’t “trust” Islamabad, suggesting that Washington should look for an alternative mediator in order to have truce with Iran.
During a hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the Iran war and the defence budget, Graham expressed his anguish over the deadlock in peace talks between Washington and Tehran.
BREAKING: Sen. Lindsey Graham unloads on Pakan after reports claim the Middle East mediator allowed Iran to use their bases to park military aircraft.
“I don’t trust Pakan as far as I can throw them. If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakan bases to… pic.twitter.com/ULF5CPQSXM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 12, 2026
The Republican senator’s remarks come from an earlier CBS News report which cited US officials and stated that Pakan allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields such as Pakan Air Force Base Nur Khan amid the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
Responding to CBS News report, Graham said, “I don’t trust Pakan as far as I can throw them. If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakan bases to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking maybe for somebody else to mediate. No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere.”
If this reporting is accurate, it would require a complete reevaluation of the role Pakan is playing as mediator between Iran, the United States and other parties.
Given some of the prior statements Pakani defense officials towards Israel, I would not be shocked if… https://t.co/OqJ1cdVLFX
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 11, 2026
Graham had asked US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, during the Senate hearing, whether or not Iranian aircraft allegedly allowed in Pakan is “consent with [Islamabad] being a fair mediator.” Hegseth responded saying he didn’t want to get in the middle of negotiations.
The CBS News report claimed that Iran sent several aircrafts, including a surveillance variant of the Lockheed C-130, to Pakan’s Nur Khan airbase near Rawalpindi.
However, a Pakani official denied the viral claims and told CBS News, “Nur Khan base is right in the heart of the city, a large fleet of aircraft parked there can’t be hidden from public eye.”
Reacting to the report, Senator Graham had earlier said Washington may have to “reevaluate” Pakan’s role as mediator between US, Iran and other parties.
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