Pakistan seeks to shield Gulf states as US-Iran talks set to resume

As Islamabad prepares to host a second round of negotiations between the United States and Iran, Pakistani mediators are seeking ways to extricate the Gulf monarchies from the conflict, according to a well-placed diplomatic source.

While the success of those efforts depends largely on the outcome of talks that US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday could resume by the end of the week, Pakistan’s mediation has produced a second confidence-building phone call in a week between the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, Abbas Araghchi and Prince Farhan bin Faisal.

Araghchi also spoke on Tuesday to Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, for the first time since the war erupted six weeks ago.

These exchanges came as the deputy foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia – its mutual defence pact partner – and co-mediators Turkey and Egypt began consultations in Islamabad on a regional diplomatic and security framework to manage the conflict’s aftermath.

Trump on Tuesday advised New York Post correspondent Caitlin Doornbos to delay her departure from Islamabad following last weekend’s failed talks between Vice-President J.D. Vance and a senior Iranian delegation.