As tensions escalate between Israel and Iran, President Donald Trump’s meeting with Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir to discuss a potential US-Pakistan alliance against Iran is drawing sharp criticism from defence experts, including Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Rubin dismissed the reported Trump-Munir meeting as “a dangerous and misguided strategy rooted in historical amnesia,” warning that trusting Pakistan to counter Iran amounts to a replay of past US foreign policy failures.
“Pakistan has a long and consistent history of ‘two-faced’ behaviour,” Rubin said. “They’ve taken billions in US aid while supporting terrorist proxies and pursuing their own malign interests — from Afghanistan to a clandestine nuclear programme.”
Rubin questioned the very premise of incentivising Pakistan to oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions, saying the geopolitical rivalry between Tehran and Islamabad already creates that incentive.
“If Iran’s nuclear program is going to be eradicated, it may take the infiltration of US forces,” Rubin said. “But if we’re going to truck out Iran’s nuclear supplies after a conflict, and they end up in Pakistan, let’s be clear — we shouldn’t pay Pakistan a single dollar for doing what is in their own interest.”
Rubin also warned of China’s indirect influence, calling Pakistan “a Chinese proxy” and suggesting that Gen. Munir may be carrying messages not just from Islamabad, but from Beijing.
“China is the real loser if oil (nearly 44%) flows from the Persian Gulf are disrupted. It wouldn’t surprise me if messages were being passed from Trump to Munir and back to China,” Rubin said. “Pakistan is hardly an independent country anymore,” Rubin said.
The defence expert did not spare Trump personally, accusing him of lacking historical depth and being too easily swayed by strongmen.
“Trump is enamoured with generals. He reflects reality without diplomatic polish,” Rubin said. “But his rhetoric about Pakistan being a ‘friend’ is insincere. He risks moral equivalence, putting America’s security behind his Nobel Prize ambitions.”
Rubin concluded with a warning that unless the US starts calling out “who is right and who is wrong” in the region, conflicts such as India-Pakistan and Israel-Iran could escalate dramatically.