PM Imran Khan arrives in Saudi Arabia to attend OIC summit

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Medina for a three-day visit on Thursday to attend the 14th Summit of Origination of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which will be held in Makkah on May 31.

After paying respect at Roza-e-Rasool (Peace Be Upon Him) and offering Nawafil prayers in Medina, the prime minister will depart for Jeddah.

According to a PM House press statement, the prime minister is representing Pakistan at the 14th OIC Summit to be held in Makkah on Friday.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was already in Saudi Arabia prior to the Prime Minister Imran Khan's departure, stressed the importance of the OIC summit to discuss the proposed peace plan to defuse the situation in the Middle East.

The OIC Summit titled ‘Makkah Summit: Together for the Future”, hosted by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, aims at developing a unified stance of Muslim leaders on rising tension in the Gulf.

Ahead of the Summit, a meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers was held in Jeddah. It deliberated on adopted outcome documents for the Makkah Summit.

Qatar PM to attend Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia

Qatar's prime minister will attend talks in Saudi Arabia over soaring regional tensions, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, one of the first high-level contacts following a two-year Riyadh-led boycott of Doha.

Since June 2017, Saudi Arabia along with the United Arab Emirates and their allies have enforced a boycott of Qatar including bans on shipping, trade, direct flights, overflight and land crossings.

The alliance, which also includes Bahrain and Egypt, accuses Doha of supporting extremist movements and backing Iran -- claims Qatar rejects.

The Qatari "leadership decided to (send)... the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani to the three summits in Mecca," foreign ministry spokeswoman Lolwah al-Khater said, referring to the gatherings of Gulf, Arab and Islamic leaders.

They are expected to address mounting hostility between Iran and the United States and its regional allies, as well as recent violent incidents in the region.