Nawaz Sharif To Visit Iran And Saudi Arabia To Ease Tensions

After an overnight stay in Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani delegation will land in Tehran where talks will take place with Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani and other senior officials. Pakistan this week offered its “good offices” to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran even as it supported the Saudi initiative to establish a coalition of like-minded Islamic states to counter terrorism and extremism.

At the New Year, Riyadh executed a Shia cleric for sedition, provoking protests in Iran that led to the sacking of the Saudi embassy and a breakdown in diplomatic relations.

Li Chengwen, Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia, made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua prior to an incoming visit to the kingdom by Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.

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Relations between majority Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia dived after the Jan 2 ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Teheran and the Saudi consulate in Mashhad, Iran’s second city.

Pakistan could become a battleground for proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran if relations continue to deteriorate.

The prime minister was accompanied by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif, Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and National Security Advisor Nasir Janjua. The two leaders will later visit Iran’s capital Tehran on Tuesday after an overnight stay in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s upcoming visit to Iran has been cancelled, the daily Dawn said quoting a source. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach a nuclear agreement. “He uses that phrase a lot”, said Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Beijing was trying to project power and influence in the Middle East, seeing an opening in the troubled region as US policy “hasn’t been very successful under (US President Barack) Obama”, he said.

In the statement, they warned against what they called “threat of Iran” and claimed that Muslim world’s main responsibility today is helping Muslims against that threat.

The visit by PM Nawaz is described as a wise step in the best interest of the Muslim Ummah and leading politicians and analysts have hailed the premier’s visit to the Kingdom and Iran.