Pakistan Opens Narrow Diplomacy
Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone with Iran’s president ahead of planned four‑nation peace talks in Islamabad on the region’s fallout — but the forum will reportedly include Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey while excluding Iran and the United States. The call underlines limited diplomatic channels even as organizers try to contain broader regional escalation. (timesofisrael.com)
Pakistan’s official press statement dated March 28 says Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephone conversation with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian that lasted “over one hour.” (pid.gov.pk) The PM’s office said Sharif used the call to brief Pezeshkian on a sequence of diplomatic outreach efforts being led by Sharif himself, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, and Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. (pid.gov.pk) Pakistan’s Foreign Office invited Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt to Islamabad for a two‑day foreign‑ministers’ meeting set for March 29–30, and said the visiting ministers would hold “in‑depth discussions” and call on the prime minister. (dawn.com) Reuters and Al Jazeera report the quadrilateral talks were framed explicitly as a push to explore de‑escalation and to position Islamabad as a potential venue for broader U.S.–Iran negotiations. (usnews.com) Photographs and official posts show Türkiye’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan and Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty arriving in Islamabad on March 28–29, with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan also travelling to the capital for the same session chaired by Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar. (reutersconnect.com) Bloomberg and other outlets note this visit follows recent outreach by Sharif in the Gulf — including a March visit to Saudi Arabia — and that Islamabad has publicly offered to host or facilitate U.S.–Iran talks as part of its mediator role. (bloomberg.com)
