ISLAMABAD/ ISTANBUL, March 28 (Reuters) – Pakistan will host Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt for talks from Sunday on the Iran war as Islamabad positions itself as a potential venue for U.S.-Iran negotiations on the month-old conflict.
The four countries’ foreign ministers will hold “in-depth discussions on a range of issues, including efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region” during the two-day talks, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the meeting would seek to establish a mechanism aimed at de-escalation.
“We would discuss where the negotiations in this war are heading and how these four countries assess the situation and what can be done,” he told broadcaster A Haber late on Friday.
The four nations have been involved in trying to mediate between Washington and Tehran in the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, and all are acutely vulnerable to threats to energy supplies and trade routes.
Pakistan has conveyed to Tehran a U.S. proposal for ending the war and offered to host talks, with Iranian officials indicating any negotiations could take place in Pakistan or Turkey.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said talks with Iran were going “very well,” but Tehran denies talking with Washington.
Iran has been reviewing the 15-point U.S. proposal, although one official has dismissed it as “one-sided and unfair”. Its demands range from dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme to curbing its missile development and effectively handing over control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources and reports.
Turkey’s Fidan told an Istanbul conference on Saturday that the world’s new “polycentric system” requires a solution to guarding vital energy and trade routes. He said Turkey’s high-level dialogue aims to swiftly chart out “actionable steps” to end the war before there is further destruction to the region and global economy.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid in Islamabad and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Editing by William Mallard)
