Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would undertake official visits to Iran and Türkiye from July 3 to 5.

“PM Shehbaz will travel to Iran first to participate in the funeral ceremony of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and will convey condolences on behalf of the people and the Government of Pakistan to the Iranian leadership and the bereaved families while reaffirming solidarity with the brotherly nation in their hour of profound grief,” Andrabi said while speaking at a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.

The spokesperson said that the premier would also travel to Türkiye at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

“The prime minister will hold discussions on the entire gamut of the bilateral relationship with a special focus on giving impetus to bilateral trade and investment cooperation between the two brotherly countries. The leadership meeting will also reflect on issues concerning regional peace and security,” he said.

Andrabi further added that during the stay in Istanbul, the prime minister would also address a business conference being hosted by Pakistan to spotlight Pakistan’s trade and investment potential in priority areas, including the SEZs, energy, trade, IT and privatisation sectors. 

“The conference will bring together leading Turkish businessmen and investors alongside senior officials, dignitaries and other distinguished participants from the business community,” he said. 

The spokesperson further said that during the visit, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and other cabinet ministers and senior officials would accompany PM Shehbaz.

Pakistan, Qatar engaged with the US-Iran negotiator in Doha yesterday

Discussing the US-Iran war and the situation in the Gulf region, Andrabi said that Pakistan had stepped up its diplomatic engagement with key regional and international stakeholders as well as the principal interlocutors to facilitate earnest follow-up and implementation of the Islamabad MOU between Iran and the US in line with the joint statement between Pakistan and Qatar issued at Bergenstock on June 21.

“Pakistan and Qatar engaged with the relevant parties in Doha yesterday and held separate meetings with the US and Iranian negotiators in Doha, and these culminated late last night, in fact, well into the morning,” he said.

The spokesperson further highlighted three specific points on the Doha talks.

“One, there was positive progress made on issues related to the different aspects of the Islamabad MOU, building on the Lake Lucerne Summit. Two, parties agreed to continue discussion over the coming period and three, next meeting to be set at the earliest possible time following the funeral procession of the former Iranian Supreme Leader,” he said.

He said that Pakistan would continue to play a facilitative and mediatory role in the negotiation process along with Qatari partners. 

“FM Dar also continued with his high-level consultations and telephone conversations, a series of which were held this week with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, China, Bahrain, and Iran. He also spoke with the British Foreign Secretary and the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,” he said.

Speaking about the seminar on the Indus Water Treaty, an Instrument of Peace and Regional Stability, he said that the participants, in general, called for upholding the treaty.

“Participants rejected a weaponisation of water and urged settling disputes through established legal and diplomatic mechanisms rather than unilateral actions. They warned that any attempt to deprive the country of its shared water would have profound consequences for regional peace and security,” he said. 

Recalling FM Dar’s statement during the IWT seminar, Andrabi said that FM Dar had said that the six-decade-old IWT could not be suspended or terminated under any pretext, and the abeyance was quote-unquote illegal, unilateral, and without any basis. 

“Pakistan unequivocally rejected this so-called abeyance. Let me add that Pakistan also rejects India’s attempt to invoke baseless allegations of terrorism as a pretext for placing the IWT in abeyance and obstructing the lawful flow of the Pakistani shares of the Indus Waters,” he said.

The spokesperson said that the real issue was not terrorism; the real issue was the growing disposition within the Indian leadership to treat the shared international river system as a strategic asset that can be controlled, withheld, or diverted at will. 

“This mindset of unilateral appropriation is fundamentally incompatible with the letter and spirit of not just international law, but also the IWT itself. Water is not a tool of coercion or political pressure,” Andrabi said.

He said that “Any attempt to deny Pakistan its legitimate share of Indus Water constitutes a clear violation of the international legal obligations that India has undertaken and undermines India’s credibility of its commitment to a treaty-based relationship.”