General Asim Munir, Pakistan's chief of army staff and one of the two principal intermediaries in the US-Iran ceasefire channel alongside Qatar, flew to Tehran on Monday, October 20, and met Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei and President Masoud Pezeshkian. On the same Monday, the British Defence Ministry announced it would intercept Houthi projectiles over Saudi Arabia, provide a transport aircraft and deploy additional military advisors to the kingdom. It confirmed it would continue air-to-air refuelling for Saudi coalition aircraft under an authorisation granted in September. France had already deployed troops and air defence systems to protect Yanbu, Saudi Arabia's largest port, the previous month. The day's map made the war's realignments unusually legible: one general went to Tehran, one government went to Riyadh.
Munir's visit to Tehran was not ceremonial. Pakistan's role as an intermediary depends on its credibility with both sides, and carrying messages requires, periodically, showing up. He met Rezaei first, then Pezeshkian. What he carried from Washington is not public. What he carried back from Tehran is, based on Rezaei's public statements throughout October, consistent: not a single gram of enriched uranium would leave Iran; ceasefire negotiations would not begin until the US lifted its naval blockade, eased sanctions and released frozen Iranian assets. These are the same conditions Iran gave Qatar. They are the same conditions they gave Pakistan in September. Munir returned from Tehran on Monday carrying the same message that has come back from every channel since the June memorandum of understanding expired in August.
The British announcement on Monday came with specific detail: the ministry would intercept Houthi projectiles above Saudi Arabia, provide a transport aircraft and deploy additional military advisors. The number of UK fighter aircraft to be deployed was not specified. Saudi Arabia's joint forces command reported intercepting a Houthi ballistic missile and a drone targeting Riyadh on Monday morning and said coalition aircraft subsequently destroyed the missile's launch platform. A senior US official, cited by the Wall Street Journal, said Saudi forces intercept about 90 per cent of Houthi attacks, but that over half those attacks target undefended locations. The Houthis have launched near-daily strikes on Riyadh and environs since October 1.
The shape of the war's external alignments is now this: the US maintains its naval blockade of Iran; the UK and France provide active military support to Saudi Arabia; Pakistan and Qatar carry the ceasefire channel; Russia's Lavrov condemns the strikes from Tehran; Iran's Rezaei tells every visitor the same thing. Saudi coalition aircraft are reportedly flying dozens to possibly hundreds of strike missions daily against Houthi positions in Yemen. The Houthis claimed control of Jabal Han in western Taiz on Monday; a journalist on the ground reported both sides still held positions on the mountain's flanks, with neither controlling the summit. Two governments moved in opposite directions on the same Monday. The war did not move at all.
