Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif will leave for Saudi Arabia and Iran on Monday (today) on a visit that is expected to reduce diplomatic tensions between two brotherly countries.

The top civil and military leaders will pay a day-long visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday where they will have meetings with King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and other senior members of the royal family. The discussion would focus on Saudi relations with Iran and developments in the Middle East. After an overnight stay in Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani delegation will land in Tehran on Tuesday where talks will take place with Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani and other senior officials.

Politicians in the country have welcomed the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia and Iran as it would help ease tension between the two Muslim countries.

Chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Mushahid Hussain Syed said it was a very positive and timely initiative of prime minister and the chief of army staff to visit the two countries for defusing tension between them.

ANP spokesman Zahid Khan expressed the hope that mediation by Pakistan would help normalise strained situation in the region and that it was in the best interest of whole Muslim Ummah.

Senator Taj Haider of PPP said that Pakistan had already suffered a lot. Forging unity among Muslim Ummah was a dream of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as he was the champion of pan-Islamisation, he said.

Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Senator Sirajul Haq termed the prime minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran a wise step as the whole nation wanted easing of tension between the two countries through peaceful negotiations.