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Pakistan PM in Tehran on mission to ‘facilitate’ Iran-Saudi talks
TEHRAN, Oct 13, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
visited Iran on Sunday on a mission to act as a “facilitator” between Tehran
and Riyadh and try to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf.
Khan landed in Tehran around midday and met with President Hassan Rouhani
at the presidential palace.
He was also scheduled to hold talks with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, before travelling to Riyadh on Tuesday.
“The reason for this trip is that we do not want a conflict between Saudi
Arabia and Iran,” Khan told reporters as he stood alongside Rouhani.
“Whatever it takes we must never allow this conflict to take place,
because we know, Mr. President, that there is a vested interest that wants
this to take place,” he told Rouhani.
Noting that it was a “complex” issue that can be resolved through talks,
Khan warned that any conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would “cause
poverty in the world”.
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.
This is Khan’s second visit this year to Iran, which shares a border of
about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) with Pakistan.
Emphasising 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”.
Tehran and Washington have been at loggerheads since the US withdrew from
the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May last year and reimposed sanctions on the
Islamic republic.
Rouhani repeated Iran’s official line that the United States must return
to the deal and lift sanctions before any talks can take place.
“Any goodwill gesture and good words will be reciprocated with a goodwill
gesture and good words,” he said.
– Tanker attacks –
Rouhani said he had expressed Iran’s concern about Gulf security and
especially a “missile attack” Friday on an Iranian vessel off the Saudi
coast.
“We expressed our concerns to the prime minister about the incidents
happening to oil tankers, especially the Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea on
Friday,” he said.
Tehran says the Iranian-flagged Sabiti tanker was hit by two separate
explosions off the Saudi port of Jeddah, making it the first Iranian vessel
targeted since a spate of attacks in the Gulf that Washington has blamed on
Tehran.
Rouhani said he had presented Khan with evidence from the incident and
that investigations were ongoing.
“If a country thinks that it can cause insecurity in the region and not
receive a proper response, it is mistaken,” Rouhani said, without
elaborating.
There has been a series of still-unexplained attacks on shipping in and
around the vital seaway involving Iran and Western powers, as well as drone
attacks on Saudi oil installations.
Washington has accused Tehran of attacking the vessels with mines and of
being behind the drone assault, something it strongly denies.
Khan met both Rouhani and Trump at the United Nations General Assembly
last month, shortly after he visited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in
Saudi Arabia.
The Pakistan premier said he was “very encouraged” by talking to Rouhani
and will go to Saudi Arabia “in a very positive frame of mind”, hoping the
two countries can “iron out their differences.”
BSS/AFP/BZC/1900HRS