The Pakistani government is hosting an urgent quadripartite meeting with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt in Islamabad on Sunday, to try to find a way to “de-escalate tensions” in the escalating US-Israeli war against Iran. The announcement of the meeting followed a Saturday conversation between Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in which Pezeshkian thanked Islamabad “for its mediation efforts to stop the aggression,” CGTN reported.
The Sunday talks will be led by Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who announced late Saturday that Iran had allowed “20 more ships” under the Pakistani flag – or two ships daily – to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. “Dialogue, diplomacy, and such confidence-building measures are the only way forward,” Dar wrote on his X account.
The Iranian news agency Tasnim elaborated that in the Saturday discussions between the leaders of Iran and Pakistan, “Pezeshkian expressed gratitude for the support and solidarity of the Muslim people of Pakistan with Iran in the face of US-Israeli military aggression, and appreciated the efforts of some friendly and neighboring countries, including Pakistan, to halt the imposed war… Lamenting the use of the territory of some Muslim countries by the aggressors for attacks against Iran, Pezeshkian emphasized that Iran’s defensive reaction to the origin of these attacks is natural, while the Islamic Republic of Iran regards Muslim countries as its brothers and does not wish for even a single Muslim to be harmed… Pezeshkian warned about the nefarious intentions of the Israeli regime to expand the war to regional countries, stating that Muslim countries must ensure that their territories are not used by aggressors to attack other Muslim nations.”
“For his part, the Pakistani prime minister reiterated his country’s principled stance in condemning military aggression against Iran, particularly the unequivocal condemnation of the recent attacks by the Israeli regime on Iran’s economic infrastructure in the cities of Ahvaz and Isfahan, and emphasized the full solidarity of the people and government of Pakistan with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
