The US drone attack that killed Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, took US-Iranian relations to the brink of war with the potential to destabilize the entire Middle East and shake the global economy. Although no casualties resulted from Tehran's retaliatory launch of more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two US military bases in Iraq, the attack took the conflict to another, extremely dangerous level.
To avoid further friction from sparking a broader war, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reached out to various countries that could help de-escalate the situation. Pakistan was one of the first countries he approached after the strike on Soleimani.
