Page 11 - MEOG Week 41

MEOG PoLiCy MEOG
Khan weighs in to ease Iran/Saudi tensions
iran/saUDi
PAKISTANI Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Tehran on October 13 with a mission to try and bring Iran and Saudi Arabia together for talks in an effort to ease high tensions in the Persian Gulf.
Khan has also said he has been approached by US President Donald Trump to “facilitate some sort of dialogue between Iran and the United States.”
he held talks with Iranian President hassan Rouhani at the presidential palace and later met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. he was scheduled to next head to Riyadh, according to Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
“The reason for this trip is that we do not want a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” Khan told reporters alongside Rouhani. “Whatever it takes we must never allow this conflict to take place, because we know, Mr President, that there is a vested interest that wants this to take place,” he told Rouhani.
Khan and Rouhani also discussed issues of economic integration such as in relation to border markets in the respective Baluchistan regions of both countries. Rouhani made a point of outlining what he contends is the “cruelty” of US sanctions that are a form of “economic ter- rorism” and hurt ordinary Iranians.
Tensions between regional arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia grew to alarming levels fol- lowing a drone and missile attack on Saudi oil facilities mounted on September 14.
Washington, Riyadh, and the major Euro- pean powers have said Iran was behind the attack, while Tehran claims it was the work of the houthi rebels fighting Saudi-backed forces
in the Yemen civil war.
Rouhani reiterated Iran’s standpoint that the
US must return to the 2015 nuclear deal and lift sanctions before any talks with Washington can take place. “Any goodwill gesture and good words will be reciprocated with a goodwill ges- ture and good words,” he said.
Two days before Khan’s visit there was an apparent targeting by missiles of an Irani- an-owned oil tanker on the Red Sea. Tehran described the attack on tanker Sabiti off the coast of Saudi Arabia as “cowardly”.
The incident, yet to be independently con- firmed, was the latest of a series of incidents involving oil tankers in the Red Sea and Gulf region. Limpet mine attacks on Saudi and other tankers have been blamed by Riyadh and the US on Iran, but it denies it was involved.
Despite the latest incident, Iran on October 12 said it was willing to meet with Saudi officials, with or without a mediator.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi was quoted by Iranian media as “Iran has announced that, with or without a media- tor, it is always ready to hold talk with its neigh- bours, including Saudi Arabia, to get rid of any misunderstandings.”
Riyadh on October 12 announced that King Salman had green-lighted the deployment of additional US troops and equipment following a Pentagon announcement that it was sending some 3,000 troops to the kingdom, including fighter squadrons, an air expeditionary wing, and air defence personnel.
Trump said that the Saudis had agreed to meet the costs of the deployment.™
PriCes
Date
WTI (US$)
ICE Brent (US$)
DME Oman (US$)
OPEC Basket (US$)
08 October
--
58.24
58.74
58.56
09 October
52.61
58.32
58.85
58.68
10 October
53.56
59.10
59.42
58.74
11 October
54.78
60.51
61.43
60.97
14 October
53.65
59.35
60.40
59.95
Week 41 15•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P11