ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Jeddah on Thursday evening, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Ealier on Thursday, the South Asian nation’s foreign office said Sharif and army chief Asim Munir will visit Saudi Arabia on August 6-8.
“Although taking place against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Gulf, the visit will carry significance beyond the immediate crisis and short term considerations,” said foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi, whose government has been mediating to end the US-Iran war that has drawn in Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry also nodded to Oman, saying it had played an important role in resolving the Hormuz issue.
Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, and a joint announcement is being finalised, provided certain third parties did not interfere, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday.
Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.
The proposed deal between Iran and Oman would give Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian source and two regional officials said on Wednesday, in one of the biggest concessions yet to Iran.
Despite the apparent step towards yielding to Iranian demands, the sources pushed back against assertions by US President Donald Trump that a deal reopening the strait was imminent, saying important details still had to be agreed.
(With agencies)
