On May 17, 2026, Qatar's Foreign Ministry confirmed a phone call between Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The topic was Iran. Specifically, it was Pakistan's ongoing effort to broker a ceasefire between the United States and Iran. The call came at one of the most fragile moments of 2026. Reports had just emerged of a phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, reportedly about the possibility of restarting military operations against Iran.