Saudi FM: Defence Minister’s Tehran Visit Seeks Dialogue To End Crisis
Riyadh says the visit supports Qatar and Pakistan’s mediation efforts and calls on all crisis parties to respond positively and pragmatically to the visit’s outcomes, emphasizing the importance of opening negotiation channels to prevent a return of military tension
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that the Defence Minister’s visit to Tehran is taking place within the framework of efforts by the Mecca Agreement countries for joint defence and tension reduction, aiming to encourage dialogue and diplomatic solutions among the parties to the current crisis, in the most detailed Saudi public explanation yet of the strategic purpose behind the unprecedented visit.
“The visit to Tehran is being conducted with the aim of encouraging dialogue and diplomatic solutions among the parties to the current crisis,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said. “This visit is being carried out in support of the mediation efforts undertaken by Qatar and Pakistan. We eagerly await a positive and pragmatic response from the crisis parties to the outcomes of this visit and the mediation efforts.”
The ministry emphasized the importance of opening negotiation channels to prevent the return of military tension to the region and expressed hope of reaching an agreement that ends the crisis and achieves security and peace in the region and the world. It reaffirmed the central role of the Mecca Agreement countries in establishing security and stability in the region.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry’s explicit invocation of the Mecca Agreement countries as the framework for the Defence Minister’s Tehran visit is a significant diplomatic signal. It places the visit within a formal multilateral regional security architecture rather than framing it as a bilateral Saudi-Iran engagement, and it names the Mecca Agreement as the institutional basis for the joint defence and tension reduction effort that the quadrilateral Tehran summit represents. The visit follows a week in which Houthi missile debris fell on Mecca and Medina on Saturday October 24, with Saudi civil defence intercepting two Houthi ballistic missiles whose fragments landed on both holy cities.
Saudi Arabia’s explicit statement that the visit supports Qatar and Pakistan’s mediation efforts places Riyadh formally alongside rather than separate from the existing US-Iran indirect negotiation track. Qatar has been carrying Iran’s seven-condition Hormuz reopening proposal to Washington, while Pakistan’s Army Chief General Munir proposed the quadrilateral Tehran summit during his recent mediation visit. Saudi Arabia is now publicly aligning its own diplomatic engagement with those two tracks, creating a coordinated multilateral mediation effort that spans the Gulf, South Asia, and the two countries whose mediation Washington has recognized as legitimate.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry’s call for all crisis parties to respond positively and pragmatically to the visit’s outcomes is a direct public message to both Washington and Tehran that the regional framework is in place and awaiting a decision from both governments to move toward a settlement.