Saudi FM carrying 'important message from crown prince' to arrive in Pakistan tomorrow

Glad that the US president has noticed the gravity of the situation and decided to intervene: Shah Mehmood Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir will visit Pakistan on Friday with an “important message from Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman”, confirmed Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

"Last night I also spoke to the Saudi foreign minister, and he expressed his desire to visit Pakistan, which I fully supported," the foreign minister said.

Al Jubeir will discuss the rising Indo-Pak tensions with his Pakistani counterpart during his visit. He is also expected to meet the prime minister and the army chief during his visit.

FM Qureshi also welcomed US President Donald Trump's recent statement regarding the Indo-Pak tensions.

"We support US President Donald Trump's statement," FM Qureshi said while addressing the media after the federal cabinet meeting on Thursday.



Speaking at a news conference in Vietnam after a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump said the US had been mediating between the two sides and that he had some “reasonably decent” news from India and Pakistan.

“They have been going at it and we have been involved in trying to have them stop,” Trump said. “We have been in the middle trying to help them both out.”

I am glad that the US president has noticed the gravity of the situation and decided to intervene, the foreign minister said.

Pakistan has long-lasting relations with the US, and Washington’s intervention will prove beneficial for the promotion of peace in the region, said FM Qureshi, adding that, "from the first day we have maintained that we support peace."

We already informed that India is trying to destabilise the region to achieve political gains.

Even the BJP leaders are admitting that by conducting more airstrikes they would get 22 more seats in Lok Sabha, the foreign minister said.



Tensions escalated dramatically between Pakistan and India on February 14 when a young man – a native of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) – rammed an explosives-laden car into an Indian military convoy, killing 44 soldiers.

The Indian jets were shot down on Wednesday, a day after India Air Force planes recklessly violated Pakistan’s airspace and dropped payloads in a mountainous Pakistani village and Delhi dubbed it “air strike on the biggest training camp of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant group” in Pakistan.

The Pakistani military exposed India’s fictitious claim and invited “anyone and everyone – including foreign diplomats, military attaches and UN military observers” – to visit the area where the Indian aircraft dropped bombs and see if any training camp existed there.

Though the Indian bombs did not cause any major damage or casualties, Pakistan vowed to retaliate against the flagrant violation of its airspace, fuelling fears of a disastrous confrontation in the region.