ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday called on the international community to seize the opportunity created by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Iran and the United States to secure a permanent settlement to their conflict, warning that actors seeking to undermine regional stability would exploit any opening to derail the process.
The warning comes a day after attacks by Yemen's Houthi movement on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, amid US strikes on Iran and Tehran's targeting of US interests in multiple countries in the region. Iran-aligned Houthis recently declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, drawing widespread regional and international condemnation.
Pakistan's foreign office on Thursday voiced Islamabad's concerns over "attempts to draw the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the Middle East conflict," reiterating its support for the Kingdom's security, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The international community must seize the opportunity provided by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and the ongoing technical negotiations between the two parties to push for a permanent, peaceful and durable settlement of this conflict,” Dar said, while addressing foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in Kyrgystan.
"At the same time, you must remain vigilant against those who seek to undermine regional stability. Such actors will exploit every opportunity to derail the peace process and reverse the progress already achieved."
Pakistan facilitated contacts between senior US and Iranian officials that paved the way for last month’s interim peace agreement, called the Islamabad MoU, that included a 60-day ceasefire, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and a timetable for a final deal on the war and Iran’s nuclear program.
Islamabad is seeking to revive diplomacy but it remains unclear what new arrangement could be reached to end the US-Iran war, which lately has become a battle for control over Hormuz.
Pakistani foreign office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that Pakistani officials had also taken up the issue of Houthi attacks with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, who visited Islamabad this week.
"Pakistan firmly believes that dialogue, diplomacy and mutual respect provide the only sustainable way forward to resolve conflicts and achieve durable peace and security," Dar said at the SCO summit.
"Only by working together, we can achieve this shared objective of long-term peace, stability and prosperity for the region and beyond."
