ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a Pakistani official said, without elaborating on the agenda of the visit that comes amid renewed tensions in the Middle East.
The development comes after United States (US) attacks on Iran in retaliation for what Washington has said were last week’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday it had launched a joint missile and drone operation targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain despite an interim peace deal with the US, signed on June 18.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have strongly condemned Iran’s latest attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain as well as on the security and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi has arrived in Saudi Arabia today, where he is scheduled to hold meetings with Saudi officials,” an official at the Pakistani interior ministry told Arab News on Monday, requesting anonymity.
Pakistan has strong ties with the Kingdom and both sides last year signed a mutual defense pact, under which an attack on one would be considered an attack on both. Pakistan deployed 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia under the pact, ramping up military cooperation with Riyadh, Reuters reported in May.
Asked about the nature of discussions likely to take place between Naqvi and Saudi officials, the interior ministry official declined to divulge details.
Pakistan led a diplomatic push together with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other regional states for a resolution to the US-Iran conflict, leading to the signing of a 14-point framework agreement, known as the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 18, to end the months-long US-Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Naqvi also traveled to Iran multiple times amid Pakistan’s efforts to broker peace between the US and Iran.
The US-Iran interim agreement started a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, immediately allowing Tehran to sell its oil freely in a major concession from Washington.
However, Iran has insisted that ships must obey its orders and is warning it will start charging fees for transit through the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas once passed. The US and Gulf Arab states have rejected Iran’s demands.
The US has said a high-level meeting on Iran would be held in Doha on Tuesday, with President Donald Trump’s top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner attending while technical talks would also continue on the sidelines.
