Pakistan on mission to enable Iran talks with US, Saudi amid rising tensions

Bloomberg

Pakistan is conducting shuttle diplomacy to promote talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia to end a tense standoff that has roiled energy markets and pushed the rival Gulf powers to the brink of war.
During a visit to Iran on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was acting “not as a mediator but as a facilitator” for talks between Tehran and Riyadh.
In a statement shown live on Iranian state television, Khan said President Donald Trump had also asked him to help aid dialogue between Iran and the US over the 2015 nuclear deal.
Coming two days after an Iranian oil tanker was attacked in the Red Sea, the visit is the latest outside attempt to broker some sort of engagement between the oil-rich Persian state, the US and its stalwart regional ally, Saudi Arabia. Earlier efforts by Japan and France have yielded little progress.
Iran said the vessel was struck by two missiles recently.
It hasn’t directly blamed Saudi Arabia for the incident and withdrew an initial remark by an official that the rockets probably emanated from the kingdom.
Pressure has been rising steadily in the region since Trump unilaterally withdrew from the international accord with Iran last year and imposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic, vowing to wipe out its crude exports. Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities were attacked last month, briefly slashing global oil output by 5%.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said he told the Pakistani premier in their meeting that the US must return to the original nuclear agreement. He said he welcomed any effort to reduce tensions in the region.
Khan said he’ll travel from Iran to Saudi Arabia with a “positive frame of mind.”