67 gfpr 10.31703/gfpr Global Foreign Policies Review gfpr 2788-502X 2788-5038 Humanity Publications Pakistan 393818 10.31703/gfpr.2022(V-III).01 4287 1.0 article Saudi-Iran Rivalry: Pakistan's Role from Neutrality to Mediatory Ibrahim Zahra Conceptualization Writing – original draft Rauf Sarwat Writing – review & editing Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages (NUML) PhD Scholar Islamabad Pakistan Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Associate Professor Islamabad Pakistan Corresponding Author: Zahra Ibrahim, PhD Scholar, Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad, Pakistan.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

This study did not require formal ethics approval.

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

 30 09 2022 09 2022 01 11 2022 5 3 Summer 1 13 01 11 2022

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

 2022 Humanity Publications This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Full Text PDF

This study examines Pakistan's changing role amid Riyadh and Tehran's geopolitical and geoeconomic competition. It debunks the claim that Saudi Arabia and Iran's rivalry has long caused sectarian strife and economic and security problems in Pakistan. Pakistan's leadership has determined to prevent sectarian and supremacy tussles between the two Middle Eastern powers and to reduce tension diplomatically. Saudi Arabia and Iran's competition has affected not only Middle Eastern governments but also Pakistan, which faces internal and external issues. Pakistan's connections with Iran and Saudi Arabia are geopolitical and geoeconomic necessities. This conundrum has led Pakistan to act as an arbitrator between Saudi Arabia and Iran in its foreign policy. This research examines Middle East political tensions from 2015 to 2021 to determine Pakistan's evolving role from neutral to mediatory. The study paper analyses how Pakistan, while protecting its national interests, helped reduce Tehran and Riyadh's animosity from 2016 onwards when tension escalated.

 Saudi Arabia Iran Pakistan Mediator Rivalry Middle East views1627 downloads64 html-views0 google-scholar-citations0 crossref-citations0 Content

This study examines Pakistan's changing role amid Riyadh and Tehran's geopolitical and geoeconomic competition. It debunks the claim that Saudi Arabia and Iran's rivalry has long caused sectarian strife and economic and security problems in Pakistan. Pakistan's leadership has determined to prevent sectarian and supremacy tussles between the two Middle Eastern powers and to reduce tension diplomatically. Saudi Arabia and Iran's competition has affected not only Middle Eastern governments but also Pakistan, which faces internal and external issues. Pakistan's connections with Iran and Saudi Arabia are geopolitical and geoeconomic necessities. This conundrum has led Pakistan to act as an arbitrator between Saudi Arabia and Iran in its foreign policy. This research examines Middle East political tensions from 2015 to 2021 to determine Pakistan's evolving role from neutral to mediatory. The study paper analyses how Pakistan, while protecting its national interests, helped reduce Tehran and Riyadh's animosity from 2016 onwards when tension escalated.

 Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

 Ethics Statement

This study did not require formal ethics approval.

 Data Availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

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