DUBAI: Pakistan’s US-requested mediation efforts between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been making slow progress, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday.

Prompted by Washington, Mr Khan in October visited Tehran and Riyadh to facilitate talks after attacks on Gulf oil interests that the US blamed on Iran.

“Our mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia has not stopped and we are making progress, but slowly,” Mr Khan told Al Jazeera in ext­racts the broadcaster relea­sed from an interview to be aired in full on Wednesday.

“We have done our best to avoid a military confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and our efforts have succeeded,” Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported Mr Khan as saying.

US-Iranian frictions worsened when President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew in mid-2018 from an accord limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for easing sanctions.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2020