PM Nawaz, COAS to leave on Saudi Arabia, Iran visit on Monday

It says the Iranian people hope that the “bitterness of filling the Arak reactor with cement will be accompanied with the sweetness of filling their table”, referring to the lifting of crippling global sanctions.

Arab League sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday that the committee set up by Arab foreign ministers at their recent meeting in Cairo is studying the statements made by the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Mohammad Ali Jafari who admitted that Iran has trained around 200,000 fighters in five countries that include Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

“China is trying to present itself as an honest broker between Saudi and Iran, much as it has done between the Syrian government and opposition”, said one Beijing-based diplomat, who is familiar with China’s Middle East policy.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced that it has executed Sheikh Nimr, among dozens of others.

Saudi Arabia has always used Africa as a source of low-priced labor.

The ransacking came amid anger over Riyadh’s execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent cleric from the kingdom’s Shia minority.

Although Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and police arrested dozens involved, Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic. He has also worked as a political analyst at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington.

But it was cancelled after a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies began air strikes in Yemen against the Iran-allied Shi’ite Houthi movement, as China apparently did not want to be seen to be taking sides in the Yemen civil war.

If the Obama administration wants to deepen its rapprochement with Iran after having reached an agreement with it over its nuclear energy program, it could further alienate the Saudis. The talks also coincided with Shiite Iran’s effort to completely satisfy the terms of last summer’s nuclear deal.

Al-Jubeir stressed the importance of U.S.-Saudi cooperation.

“I think the real question from here is whether pro-Iranian terror groups in places like in Iraq or Bahrain carry out terrorist attacks like they have pledged to do so if the cleric was executed”, Weinberg said.

Pakistan has also offered its mediator role to end the tension between two longtime rivals.

“This is an interesting coincidence which shows how closely Pakistan ‎and China are working to defuse tensions in Gulf region”, he said.