- AFP, TEHRAN
Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan on Monday held talks with Iran to stop the Middle East war from reigniting, with Tehran saying the discussions were “very good.”
Officials from the three Mecca pact countries flew to Iran as part of efforts to “de-escalate between the parties to the current crisis,” the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The talks, which included Saudi Arabian Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman, followed warnings by the US, Iran and Israel that hostilities could restart in the eight-month war.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, front, second left, meets with Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid, back, left, Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, back, second left, and Turkish National Intelligence Organization Chairman Ibrahim Kalin, back, third left, in Tehran on Monday.Photo: West Asia News Agency via Reuters
It was the first joint visit to Tehran by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey since they in August formed a defense alliance in Mecca, the holy city in western Saudi Arabia.
The delegations met with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi. The meeting ended without concrete announcements, with the parties saying they “agreed to continue discussions,” Iranian state media reported.
However, Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said the discussions in the capital, Tehran, were “very good,” state television reported.
POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE
“I feel that a new atmosphere is emerging in the region... I sensed a very positive atmosphere in the discussions among the gentlemen,” Rezaei said.
He said they agreed that security in the region “should be achieved by the countries themselves, and that we must prevent any kind of foreign intervention,” adding that emphasis was put on the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, southern Syria, Gaza and the West Bank.
Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid, Pakistani Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish National Intelligence Organization Chairman Ibrahim Kalin met Rezaei.
Regional tensions have risen ahead of Israel’s pivotal elections yesterday and next week’s US midterms, where US President Donald Trump’s Republicans are battling to keep control of both chambers of the US Congress.
As the talks in Tehran began, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “essential to stop any escalation” in the Middle East.
“The risk to have the combination of an overwhelming military attack on Iran, and an overwhelming military attack by Iran on the countries of the Gulf, needs to be avoided at all costs,” he told a news conference in Cairo.
‘LAST CHANCE’
Saudi Arabian security analyst and researcher Hesham Alghannam posted on social media that “this historic meeting in Tehran may be the last chance before escalation spirals out of control.”
Fresh explosions rattled Riyadh overnight, which has suffered weeks of attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis, after the group claimed a new attack on the Saudi Arabian capital’s international airport on Sunday.
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen later reported intercepting three Houthi-launched drones over southern Saudi Arabia and the Riyadh region.