Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia today to try to ease tension between the kingdom and Iran, a minister said yesterday.
Information minister Pervez Rashid said Sharif would travel to Riyadh today and Tehran tomorrow and would meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said Sharif would exchange views on regional and international issues and try to reduce tension between the two countries.
“Pakistan is deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tensions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the spokesman said in a statement.
He said the prime minister has called for the peaceful settlement of differences in the larger interests of Muslim unity.
“The purpose of the visit is to mediate and to end the standoff between the two countries,” a third government official said, requesting anonymity.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran after protesters sacked its embassy in Tehran.
Local media said Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif would accompany Premier Sharif.
Pakistan-based analyst Hasan Askari backed Sharif’s bid to defuse tension.
“It’s a very positive move in the right direction. The tension between the two countries is destabilising for the region,” Askari said.
“Pakistan itself is passing through a difficult time and that’s why (it is) trying to stop the spillover in regional tension,” Askari said, referring to sectarian friction in the country.
Pakistan’s decided this month to join Saudi Arabia’s 34-country coalition against extremism.
Nawaz Sharif
