Sharif takes Saudi conditions for reconciliation to Tehran

Dubai: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army chief General Raheel Sharif arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to meet Iranian leadership, as part of efforts to defuse rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The two will meet Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and call on Iranian grand spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Dawn online reported.

During the visit to Saudi Arabia, Nawaz Sharif met King Salman and will deliver the king’s message to the Iranian leadership in Tehran.

Riyadh has assured that if Tehran shows positive signs, diplomatic ties may be restored.

A list of points has been given to the Pakistani leadership for discussion with Iran’s leadership, said diplomatic sources.

Meanwhile, analysts say that Pakistani mediation efforts were an initiative from Islamabad and were not requested by Saudi Arabia.

Tehran, they added, began the escalation when it failed to protect Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran from rioting mobs, and it is now incumbent on the country to show its good will. The ball, they said, is in Iran’s court.

“I believe Sharif’s efforts are of his own,” Saudi analyst Khalid Al Maeena told Gulf News. “Because Pakistan is very close to Saudi Arabia, and historically had friendly relations with Iran,” he added.

Other Saudi political scientists expressed a similar view.

“Turkey has offered its mediation and so have Russia and Pakistan... but Saudi Arabia has not announced any position of any of these offers,” said academic and writer Khalid Al Dakheel.

“You know that Russia has a higher regard for Iran than Pakistan”, yet Riyadh has not asked for Moscow’s mediation, Al Dakheel told Gulf News.

Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday was thoroughly covered in the Saudi media. However, no details of the talks with the Saudi leadership were disclosed.

Foreign media outlets quoted a statement by Sharif’s office saying that the Pakistani prime minister expressed, during his meeting with King Salman, his country’s “deep concern” over the recent escalation of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran called for early resolution of differences through peaceful means.

“What happened was not an escalation from the two sides,” said Salman Al Dossary, Editor-in-Chief of the pan-Arab Saudi-owned newspaper of Al Sharq Al Awsat.

“What happened was a violent action and rejected by all countries of the world,” he added in an email statement to Gulf News in reference to the Iranian reaction to Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric along with 46 others — all accused of terrorism.

Therefore, Riyadh reacted “naturally” by cutting its diplomatic relations with Tehran.

Al Dossary, based in London, echoed the views of analysts inside Saudi Arabia.

“Once the Iranian regime stops its hostile and terrorists behaviour, Saudis will be the first to welcome the resumption of ties. But as long as the regime continues exporting its revolution and supporting its militias in the region, then Saudi Arabia and [other] Arab countries don’t need these diplomatic relations,” Al Dossary said.

Several Arab countries either cut or downgraded their diplomatic relations with Iran after the Saudi move.

Apart from apology and compensation, Tehran has to “stop exporting sectarianism and militias to the Arab region,” said Dakheel.

“Saudi seeks a secure and stable environment in the region,” said Maeena.

“Any Saudi-Iranian rapprochement will be beneficial to the whole Muslem World. I believe the Pakistanis are looking from this point,” he added.

— with inputs from IANS