Washington— AsPakistanpositioned itself as a diplomatic conduit between Tehran and Washington, it quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.

Iran also sent civilian aircraft to park in neighboring Afghanistan. It was not clear if military aircraft were among those flights, two of the officials told CBS News.

Together, the movements reflected an apparent effort to insulate some of Iran's remaining military and aviation assets from the expanding conflict, even as officials publicly served as brokers for de-escalation.

The U.S. officials, who all spoke only under condition of anonymity to discuss national security issues, told CBS News that days afterPresident Trump announced the ceasefirewith Iran in early April, Tehran sent multiple aircraft to Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan, a strategically important military installation located just outside the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Among the military hardware was an Iranian Air Force RC-130, a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering variant of theLockheed C-130 Herculestactical transport aircraft.

U.S. Central Command referred CBS News to Afghan and Pakistani officials for comment.

A senior Pakistan official rejected the claims involving Nur Khan Air Base, telling CBS News, that "Nur Khan base is right in the heart of [the] city, a large fleet of aircrafts parked there can't be hidden from [the] public eye."

According to an Afghan civil aviation officer who spoke to CBS News, an Iranian civilian aircraft belonging to Mahan Air landed in Kabul shortly before the war started. After Iranian airspace was closed, the aircraft remained parked in Kabul airport.

Later, when Pakistan began airstrikes on Kabul in March during tensions with the Taliban-led government overallegationsthat the Afghan Taliban was offering a safe haven for the jihadist militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Taliban's civil aviation authorities decided to move the aircraft to Herat Airport near the Iranian border for safety reasons, to protect it from possible bombing of Kabul Airport by Pakistani jets.

According to the aviation officer, this was the only Iranian aircraft left in Afghanistan.

Source: Drudge Report