ISLAMABAD
Pakistan remains actively engaged with regional partners in diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the Gulf and the Middle East, particularly the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.
“Pakistan remains engaged alongside other brotherly states in sincere efforts to resolve the crisis in the Gulf and the Middle East, especially with respect to the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz,” Andrabi told reporters during his weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
He praised Oman’s role in promoting regional stability, saying: “As a littoral state overlooking the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf, Oman has consistently played a constructive role in promoting regional peace and stability.”
Andrabi said Pakistan would continue to pursue diplomacy to support peace in the region.
As part of those efforts, he said, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held separate telephone conversations with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi.
According to Andrabi, the talks covered developments in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Palestine and Occupied East Jerusalem. Dar also invited Araghchi to visit Pakistan.
On June 18, Washington and Tehran signed a framework agreement and launched negotiations toward a final deal before the talks stalled over disagreements on guarantees for security and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Last month, tensions escalated again as the US carried out strikes inside Iran, while Tehran responded by targeting what it described as US military facilities and equipment in several Arab countries, particularly Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
