Saudi, Pakistan and Turkey Envoys Meet Iran Officials in Tehran in Bid to Avert New War

Saudi, Pakistan and Turkey Envoys Meet Iran Officials in Tehran in Bid to Avert New War

Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday in a high-stakes diplomatic push to stop the confrontation between Iran, the United States and Israel from sliding back into open war. The delegation included Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, in the first high-level engagement between Iran and all three countries of the Mecca Pact since the regional conflict deepened.

The talks come after a tense weekend in which Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they had attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, while the Saudi-led coalition said it had destroyed ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa. The Mecca Pact is a mutual defence agreement under which an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all; Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have approved it, while Turkey's ratification is still under way.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was weighing a negotiated agreement with Iran against further military action, ruling out a strike that day but not in the future. Iran's ambassador to Pakistan said Tehran remains open to talks under a Pakistan-brokered interim deal reached in June, and that Iran had offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if Washington lifted its naval blockade. The gap remains wide: Washington wants enforceable security guarantees, while Tehran rejects terms it sees as surrender.

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