Pakistan PM looks to play peacemaker with Saudi Arabia, Iran visits

Hailing the agreement as a diplomatic success in resolving a longstanding regional issue, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Ankara expects the comprehensive joint action plan to be implemented “uninterrupted and in full” under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. China traditionally has close relations also with Iran, which is its primary source of oil.

Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric earlier this month was followed by Iranian demonstrators ransacking the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting several of Riyadh’s Sunni allies to break off diplomatic ties with Iran.

Although Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and police arrested dozens involved, Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.

The focus of their discussions was the Saudi-Iran tensions and the 24-state alliance recently formed by Riyadh. In a Channel 4 News interview, Adel al-Jubeir was told by interviewer Jonathan Rugman that Saudi Arabia has a “terrible image problem”, but responded by saying that their actions should be respected. The final stance of countries such as the US, Russia, China and European Union towards the Saudi Arabia-Iran crisis is not yet certain.

Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud in Saudi Arabia in October. 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. From the first day of the Saudi-Iran standoff, he said, his party stressed the need for mediation and urged the government not to become a party to the conflict. Saudi defence and foreign affairs ministers visited Islamabad last week in connection with the aggravating situation.

While President Barack Obama’s government insists its goal was simply to halt the spread of atomic weapons, experts detect an effort to bring a new balance to its Middle East relationships. “We have not been good at explaining ourselves”, he said. “That is why Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is going to both the countries”.

“And this harkens back to the status of Saudi Arabia under the shah, with the Twin Pillars doctrine under Nixon, when the Saudis were the junior partner”.