After holding a successful visit to Iran, Prime Minister Imran Khan will be leaving for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (today) in a bid to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf region.
Reports said the prime minister will hold key meetings with the Saudi leadership to devise a strategy to curb escalating tensions with Iran.
Earlier, during a press conference in Tehran, Imran Khan had warned that any conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia will cause poverty in the world. “Pakistan suffered 70,000 casualties in the last 15 years in the war on terror, Afghanistan is still suffering, and there is terrible devastation in Syria – we don’t want another conflict in this part of the world,” he had asserted.
Emphasizing that the visits to Tehran and Riyadh were Pakistan’s ‘initiative’, Imran Khan had said he was also approached by US President Donald Trump to facilitate some sort of dialogue between Iran and the United States.
Pakistan has strong relations with Saudi Arabia, with more than 2.5 million of its nationals living and working in the kingdom, but it also maintains good relations with Iran and represents Tehran’s consular interests in the United States (US).
It merits a mention here that last month the US President Donald Trump had asked Prime Minister Imran to play a role in reducing tension between the two countries.