By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif left Islamabad on Wednesday for a four-day diplomatic tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye, stepping up Islamabad’s role as a mediator in the fragile US-Iran peace process as momentum builds for a second round of negotiations.
The trip, scheduled through Saturday, comes as a two-week ceasefire — which has paused US and Israeli strikes on Iran until April 22 — holds amid intense back-channel diplomacy. Sharif’s itinerary includes bilateral meetings in Riyadh and Doha, followed by talks on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Türkiye, where he is expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other leaders.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry described the engagements in Saudi Arabia and Qatar as strictly bilateral, while the stop in Türkiye will focus on multilateral discussions tied to the regional forum. The Prime Minister’s Office said Sharif departed with a high-level delegation for the first leg in Saudi Arabia, underscoring Islamabad’s deepening coordination with its Gulf and Turkish partners.
The visit reflects Pakistan’s positioning as a neutral broker in the aftermath of the recent US-Israel conflict with Iran. Pakistani officials have repeatedly condemned Tehran’s attacks on Gulf states while maintaining close ties with Riyadh, Doha and Ankara. In recent years, Islamabad has strengthened defence, diplomatic and economic cooperation with all three countries; the Gulf states have provided critical external financing support and are home to large Pakistani diaspora communities.
President Asif Ali Zardari said Tuesday that Sharif had briefed him on efforts to engage fellow mediators and secure additional rounds of talks. Zardari urged the prime minister and senior officials to stay closely engaged with the United States, Iran and other key powers to keep the peace process alive.
The diplomatic push gained traction after unconfirmed reports on Monday of back-channel negotiations to arrange fresh talks. On Tuesday, comments from President Donald Trump and UN Secretary-General António Guterres signalled growing international support for Pakistan’s initiative.
In an interview with the New York Post published Tuesday, Trump said talks could resume in Pakistan within the next two days. The newspaper reported that Trump had first suggested Europe as the venue but later called back to say it was “more likely” the negotiations would return to Islamabad. He praised Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Asim Munir, as “doing a great job.”
Separately, the Associated Press quoted a diplomat from one of the mediating countries as saying Tehran and Washington had agreed in principle to additional talks, though the location, timing and makeup of the delegations remained undecided. Both Islamabad and Geneva are under consideration as possible host cities, the diplomat said.
Guterres, who met Pakistan’s deputy prime minister on Tuesday, described a resumption of ceasefire talks as “highly probable.” Speaking to reporters, he cautioned against expecting quick breakthroughs. “I think it would be unrealistic to expect … such a complex problem, long-lasting problem, could be resolved in the first session of a negotiation,” Guterres said. “So we need negotiations to go on, and we need a ceasefire to persist as negotiations go on.”
The optimism persists despite the collapse of an initial 21-hour round of face-to-face talks in an unspecified location that ended on Sunday without agreement. Those discussions involved US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Sharif’s tour follows a series of regional consultations that signal Pakistan’s broader commitment to stability in the Middle East. Last month, foreign ministers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt met in Islamabad to discuss the situation. Senior officials from the four countries convened again in the Pakistani capital this week; their discussions are expected to inform a follow-up meeting of foreign ministers scheduled for April 17 on the sidelines of the Antalya forum.
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