PM leaves for Saudi Arabia to defuse regional tensions

• During his visit, the PM will hold meetings with top Saudi officials.
• The prime minister will also discuss issues related to regional security.
• This would be Prime Minister Imran Khan s third visit to Saudi Arabia this year.

(Karachi) Following his visit to Iran last Sunday (October 13), Prime Minister Imran Khan left on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to defuse regional tensions. During his visit, the PM will hold meetings with top Saudi officials.

According to Foreign Office, the prime minister will hold meetings with the Saudi leadership in light of his recent consultations with other leaders. Bilateral ties and other regional developments would also form part of the discussions.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are bound in a fraternal relationship marked by mutual trust and understanding, close cooperation, and an abiding tradition of supporting each other.

This would be PM's third visit to Saudi Arabia this year. From the Saudi side, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman paid a state visit to Pakistan in February 2019. The premier will hold key meetings with Saudi leadership to devise solutions for reducing crisis between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Earlier during press conference in Tehran, PM Imran warned, “Any conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would cause poverty in the world."

"Pakistan suffered 70,000 casualties in the last 15 years in the war on terror, Afghanistan is still suffering, there is terrible devastation in Syria — we don’t want another conflict in this part of the world," he asserted.

Emphasizing that the visits to Tehran and Riyadh were Pakistan’s initiative, Khan said he was also approached by US President Donald Trump to "facilitate some sort of dialogue between Iran and the United States".

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said, “I told Prime Minster Imran we welcome any gesture by Pakistan for peace in the region and appreciate his visit to our country." He said that the two leaders had discussed the war in Yemen and the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran among many other issues.

"Regional issues have to be resolved through regional means and dialogue. We also emphasized that any goodwill gesture will be responded with goodwill gesture and good words," said the Iranian president.

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).