Informs PML-N supremo on overall situation, global oil prices and government relief measures
\nlahroe
\nPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Sunday and briefed him on the situation in the Middle East and Pakistan\u2019s efforts aimed at promoting peace in the region, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office (PMO) said.
\nAccording to a statement, during a visit to Jati Umra, the prime minister apprised Nawaz of the overall situation in the country and took him into confidence regarding global oil prices as well as the government\u2019s measures to provide relief to the public.
\nPunjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was also present during the meeting.
\nThe conflict, now in its third month with no clear end in sight, began when the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, triggering retaliation from Tehran against Israel as well as US allies in the Gulf, along with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
\nAs the conflict escalated, Pakistan entered as a mediator and a two-week ceasefire was brokered on April 8 through its efforts.
\nFollowing the ceasefire, direct talks were held in Islamabad on April 11, but no agreement was reached on a lasting truce. Former US president Donald Trump later extended the ceasefire without setting a new deadline after a request from Pakistan.
\nSince April 13, the US has enforced a naval blockade targeting Iranian maritime traffic in the strategic waterway.
\nPakistan has remained in the global spotlight since the US and Iran first agreed to a temporary ceasefire three weeks ago, which led to the groundbreaking direct talks between the two adversaries since 1979.
\nDuring the last 10 days or so, Pakistan twice came close to arranging another round of talks. But Iran\u2019s preconditions, such as lifting the US naval blockade, prevented the second round from happening.
\nSince then, backchannel diplomacy has taken over. Islamabad may no longer be in the spotlight, but it remains a pivotal player guiding behind-the-scenes efforts.
\nIt was via Pakistan that Iran recently shared a proposal with the United States to end the war.
\nAlso Read: Israeli military urges residents of 11 southern Lebanon towns to move to open areas
\nIn a social media post on Tuesday, US President Trump said Iran had informed the US it is \u201cin a \u2018State of Collapse,\u2019\u201d insisting Tehran wants the Strait of Hormuz open as \u201cthey try to figure out their leadership.\u201d
\nApart from differences on major issues, Iran and the US have divergent approaches on how to end the conflict.
\nIran wants a step-by-step approach and does not want to sign a deal in a hurry. The US, meanwhile, is pushing for an \u201call-in-one deal\u201d envisaging all contentious issues, including the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear matters.
\nWashington feels that lifting the naval blockade in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz would take away its key leverage at the negotiating table.
\nWith the US having reservations over the Iranian proposal, American media reports suggest that Tehran may soon submit a revised set of plans via Pakistan to Washington.
\nThis shows that the diplomatic process, even if moving at a slow pace, has not halted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Informs PML-N supremo on overall situation, global oil prices and government relief measures lahroe Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Sunday and briefed him on the situation in the Middle East and Pakistan\u2019s efforts aimed at promoting peace in the region, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office (PMO) said. According to a statement, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97213,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97189\/revisions\/97213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}