ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has expressed grave concern over escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In a statement, Foreign Office Spokesman said attack on Saudi Embassy in Tehran is unfortunate and condemnable.
He said Pakistan wants peaceful solution of problems and terrorist forces can take advantage from tension within Muslim Ummah.
Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said Pakistan is fully alive to the happenings in the Middle East and assured the members that Pakistan will play a positive role in defusing tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
He was responding to a point of order raised by Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah in the National Assembly, which resumed its session in Islamabad today.
Ahsan Iqbal said it has been the policy of the government to promote unity and solidarity amongst the Muslim Ummah. Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday and fellow-Sunni Bahrain followed suit on Monday, two days after Iranian demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest at Riyadh's execution of a senior Shia cleric.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also downgraded its ties with Iran, as the dispute between the region's top Sunni and Shia powers rippled across the region, driving up oil prices and threatening to widen the Middle East's sectarian divide.