Yet it has both large Sunni and Shia Muslims populations, and is likely to want to avoid escalated tensions between Shia Iran and predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia.
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Sartaj Aziz, the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs, is scheduled to brief the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Standing Committee today on Pakistan’s position over the recent deterioration of diplomatic relations between key ally Saudi Arabia and neighboring nation Iran.
He said Russian Federation regrets execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia, also describing an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran as “unacceptable”.
In his op-ed, Zarif defended his country’s reaction to the attacks on Saudi diplomatic facilities, saying Tehran took immediate action to return order at the compound in Tehran and punished those responsible for the lapse in embassy security.
The President said he had instructed Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to prepare the envoys to arrive in Saudi Arabia and Iran by early next week. He said Pakistan is ready to resolve differences among Muslim countries.
On Sunday, Jaber Ansari said that Iran was seeking to sooth tensions in the region including its frictions with Saudi Arabia.
Jubeir said some countries had offered to mediate but that required Iran to be serious about the efforts.
Cavusoglu said they discus every issue open heart with “our Iranian friends” and that Turkey encouraged them “to follow more constructive policies”, in regional issues, especially Syria.
He said that Pakistan would share intelligence information with Saudi Arabia to cope with the menace of terrorism.
Syrian opposition officials have expressed misgivings about the peace talks, citing the need to see goodwill measures from the government side including a ceasefire, a detainee release and the end of blockades on besieged areas before starting negotiations.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claims Saudi Arabia is using the row to hurt peace talks on Syria.
Securing support from these regional blocs, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir warned that his country may take further steps against Iran.
Turkey was “ready to make every effort to remedy the problems between the two countries” in the face of tensions that have the “potential to deepen the existing problems in our region”, Cavusoglu told a conference of ambassadors in Ankara.
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About the country’s defence ties with Saudi Arabia, Raheel Sharif repeated that Pakistan holds its defence ties with the Kingdom in highest esteem and any threat to Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity would evoke a strong response from Pakistan.
