Pakistan PM to visit Saudi and Iran ‘to ease tension’

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia and Iran this week to try to ease tension between the Muslim countries, a minister said Sunday.

Information minister Pervez Rashid told AFP Sharif would travel to Riyadh on Monday and Tehran on Tuesday and would meet Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said Sharif would exchange views on regional and international issues and try to reduce tension between the two countries.

“Pakistan is deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tensions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the spokesman said in a statement.

He said the prime minister has called for the peaceful settlement of differences in the larger interests of Muslim unity.

“The purpose of the visit is to mediate and to end the standoff between the two countries,” a third government official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its Arab allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran after protesters angry at Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric on January 2 sacked its embassy in Tehran.

Local media said Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif would accompany Premier Sharif.