Doha, Qatar — The Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies convened an online webinar on 22 June 2026 to examine how the U.S.-Israel war on Iran is reshaping the Afghanistan–Pakistan conflict, regional security calculations, and prospects for mediation.
The webinar is part of CHS's ongoing series The War on Iran — Regional Reverberations, which examines how the conflict is reshaping security dynamics, mediation pathways, and humanitarian risks throughout the region. The webinar featured Dr. Amina Khan, Director of the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East & Africa at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, and Hameed Hakimi, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies.
The discussion highlighted that the war on Iran has added pressure to an already fragile Afghanistan–Pakistan dynamic by increasing regional insecurity and further disrupting trade and border movement. It also underscored that the underlying drivers of tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan remain unresolved, even as the wider regional environment has become more volatile. The panelists identified that a genuine shift beyond repeated crisis management would need to be reflected in the reopening of border crossings and the renewed movement of people, goods, and ideas. Without such steps, dialogue is likely to remain reactive rather than sustained.
Panelists emphasized that mediation is more likely to be effective when led by actors with credibility, access, and a strong understanding of the regional context. As such, regional actors are better placed than distant external actors to support mediation, particularly if they can help both sides move away from force-based responses and begin to treat the shared border as a space for cooperation rather than confrontation.
The discussion concluded that the costs of continued conflict are growing across the region. The longer the Afghanistan–Pakistan relationship remains trapped in cycles of border closure, mistrust, and recurring crisis response, the greater the political and economic opportunities that will continue to be lost.
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